Meta disregarded its own research on teen harm, Tennessee lawyers tell jury

The long-awaited trial between the social media company Meta and the state of Tennessee began proceedings on Monday. Attorneys for Tennessee told a jury in Nashville that Meta, which owns Instagram and Facebook, disregarded internal research about its platform’s impact on teenagers, while the company sought ⁠to maximize profit from those young users.

During ⁠opening statements in a seven-week ​trial in state court, the state’s lawyers said Meta researchers repeatedly flagged teenagers’ compulsive use of the platform – leading to eating disorders, depression and self-harm. But despite those warnings, Meta did not ⁠disable features such as autoplay, notifications and infinite scroll which, the lawyers said, were designed to keep teens on Instagram as long as possible and increase the number of ads they viewed.

An attorney for Meta countered the company has been transparent ⁠about the risks teens face on Instagram and the amount of dangerous content it finds. The company works hard to find problems and fix them, the attorney said.

Tennessee’s lawsuit is one of 42 cases brought against Meta by individual states across the US. It comes after the company suffered a damaging loss in New Mexico in March, where a jury found the company liable for harming children and ordered it to pay $375m in civil penalties. It also comes as thousands of other lawsuits have been filed against Meta and other social media companies by families, school districts and state attorneys general.

The lawsuit in Tennessee, filed by attorney general Jonathan Skrmetti’s office, seeks financial penalties ‌and a court order directing Instagram to modify aspects of the platform that the state says are harmful to teens’ mental health.

If the jury finds ‌Meta liable, the trial will enter a second phase where the judge will decide damages.

During the opening statements, Tom Cartmell, a lawyer for the state, said Instagram triggers dopamine hits that promote addiction and that has a particularly strong impact on the brains of kids.

Cartmell also showed the jury an internal document from 2017 in which Meta product managers wrote that features such as notifications and infinite scroll “are inherently at odds with well-being” and said that the company needed to warn ​the public.

“This warning never came,” Cartmell said.

Kevin Huff, a lawyer for Meta, said documents such as those Cartmell cited are proof that the company is searching for problems on its platforms, so it can improve them. The company has developed tools to help limit problematic use of Instagram, Huff said, and seeks to empower teachers and parents to help keep teens safe.

“We think the evidence will show that Meta is doing its part and empowering others to ​do their part, because protecting teens online is a ​shared responsibility,” Huff said. “It takes a village.”

The next lawsuit over social media addiction and harm to children is slated to go to trial next month in Oakland, California. It will be the first federal trial against the social media companies, including Meta, YouTube, TikTok and Snap, and was brought by attorneys general from 29 states.