Meta faces trial over Instagram addiction allegations and th

Meta faces trial in Tennessee over allegations Instagram was designed to be addictive.

Meta Platforms will face trial in Tennessee on Monday, accused of violating the state's consumer protection law by knowingly designing a product that drives teens to compulsive use and misleading the public about its safety. The lawsuit claims Meta failed to disclose extensive internal research showing Instagram could harm teens and continued offering features it knew were dangerous without warning users.

The state of Tennessee alleges that Meta's social media platforms, including Instagram, were intentionally built to be addictive, and that the company's founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, was repeatedly warned about research that found a negative impact on teens but declined to fund efforts to minimize those harms.

A Meta spokesperson said the company has built-in controls to protect the hundreds of thousands of Tennessee teens who use social media every day. "We want them to do that in a protected space, which is why we've spent a decade building safe, age-appropriate defaults for teens alongside simple tools for parents to set the right boundaries for their family," the spokesperson said.

The trial is one of several against Meta in the coming weeks, testing allegations that the company's social media platforms were intentionally built to be addictive. The case focuses on features like autoplay, Instagram's Reels videos, notifications, and designs that cause content to disappear after a certain period.

Tennessee's consumer protection law levies a fine of up to $1,000 per violation. The trial, which is slated to last seven weeks, is scheduled to overlap with at least two other trials against the company in California as it faces thousands of lawsuits over similar claims in both state and federal court.

Nearly every state in the country has filed claims against Meta over its platforms' alleged impact on children. A trial over claims against Meta brought by 29 states alleging the company violated federal law protecting data collected from children and additional state law claims from California, Colorado, Kentucky, and New Jersey is scheduled to begin on August 18 in federal court in California.

The companies have broadly denied the allegations in these lawsuits, arguing they have sought to protect children and should not be liable for claims they say are based on content posted by their users. Tennessee's trial is the second to test claims in a lawsuit brought by a state against Meta, following a similar case in New Mexico, which resulted in a $375 million award to the state.

Source: JOY