Overview
- A jury has been seated in Oakland for a federal trial brought by California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey after an appeals court held that Section 230 does not bar the multi‑state suit.
- The states say Meta built features such as infinite scroll, autoplay, likes and push notifications to entice and ‘ensnare’ young users and that the company unlawfully collected children’s data.
- Plaintiffs seek billions of dollars and sweeping changes to how Facebook and Instagram operate for under‑18 accounts, including removing infinite scroll, video autoplay and visible like counts.
- Meta calls the claims unsubstantiated, says it has teen protections and warns potential damages could be as high as about $1.4 trillion, and senior executives including Mark Zuckerberg and Adam Mosseri are expected to testify when the trial begins on August 18.
- Recent adverse decisions, including a $567 million New Mexico judgment and a Los Angeles jury finding, mean the Oakland verdict could create legal precedent that affects thousands of related suits and spur regulatory shifts in platform design.