People talk near a Meta sign outside of the company’s headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif., March 7, 2023. (AP Photo\/Jeff Chiu, File)<\/small><\/p>\n
2026-08-18T04:02:14Z<\/p>\n
Oakland, Calif. (AP) \u2014 Opening arguments are set to kick off Tuesday in a pivotal trial for Meta Platforms<\/a><\/span> in a California federal court. <\/p>\n Attorneys general from California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey are seeking extensive financial damages plus changes to how the company operates Facebook and Instagram. Twenty-nine states sued the tech giant in 2023<\/a><\/span> over child safety and privacy \u2014 the other 25 will go to trial later. The company also faces lawsuits in state courts. <\/p>\n The lawsuit accuses the social media giant of contributing to the youth mental health crisis<\/a><\/span> by knowingly and deliberately designing features that get children addicted<\/a><\/span> to its platforms. It also argues that Meta routinely collects data on children under 13 without their parents\u2019 consent, in violation of federal law.<\/p>\n \u201cThis week, we\u2019re in court with the largest consumer protection lawsuit in American history. We\u2019ll show a jury that Meta concealed what it knew about the harm its products cause young people because looking away was more profitable,\u201d said Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman in a statement. <\/p>\n Meta said it believes it has a strong case. <\/p>\n \u201cWe are proud of our record in protecting teens on our platforms and the amount of effort that we\u2019ve put into developing protections over the years, even before these cases were ever filed, and continuing to the present day. We look forward to showing the judge and the jury those facts in court,\u201d the company said in a statement.<\/p>\n U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland will oversee the proceedings, which are expected to last six to eight weeks, with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and other executives and former employees testifying. Gonzalez Rogers, appointed to the bench by President Barack Obama in 2011, has overseen a bevy of complex, high-profile cases involving Big Tech. These include Elon Musk\u2019s lawsuit against OpenAI<\/a><\/span> and its founders as well as Epic Games\u2019 lawsuit against Apple<\/a><\/span> over its app store.<\/p>\n