{"id":436858,"date":"2026-08-19T02:06:22","date_gmt":"2026-08-19T02:06:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/436858\/"},"modified":"2026-08-19T02:06:22","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T02:06:22","slug":"29-u-s-states-put-meta-on-trial-in-oakland-over-facebook-and-instagram-child-addiction-claims-how-18-outlets-framed-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/436858\/","title":{"rendered":"29 U.S. States Put Meta on Trial in Oakland Over Facebook and Instagram Child Addiction Claims: how 18 outlets framed it"},"content":{"rendered":"

Trial in Oakland<\/p>\n

Megan O’Neill, a deputy attorney general for California, told an eight-person jury that Meta\u2019s business model was to “hook the users, hold them for as long as they can, harvest their data, and then hide the truth from the public.”<\/p>\n

\"Image\"AfricaAfrica For Press<\/a><\/p>\n

The states\u2019 case also alleges that Meta violated federal law by improperly collecting and using personal data of children while they used its platforms, with jurors expected to issue an advisory verdict and U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers to determine liability.<\/p>\n

Meta\u2019s defense is expected to argue that the company has made a huge effort to keep kids safe online, and that it did not make misleading statements about safety and the states failed to show residents were harmed.<\/p>\n

The trial is scheduled to last six weeks, and Meta co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Instagram chief Adam Mosseri are expected to testify.<\/p>\n

Competing narratives<\/p>\n

Outside the courthouse as the trial began, Mary Rodee said her 15-year-old son Riley Basford was victimized by a predator on Facebook before he died by suicide in 2021, adding, “They call it spontaneous suicide.”<\/p>\n

Rodee framed the case as a predictable outcome, saying, “I call it what it was, the predictable outcome of a system that protects corporations instead of children.”<\/p>\n

\"Image\"Arageek\"Arageek<\/a><\/p>\n

Inside the courtroom, Meta rejected the states\u2019 claims, with a Meta spokesperson saying the AGs “offer no proof anyone in their states was misled” and that the states are “decided to chase an outlandish payout.”<\/p>\n

Reuters reported that Meta\u2019s lawyer Paul Schmidt told the jury there was “no dispute” that some social media users face struggles, but said research showed no clear link between adolescents\u2019 social media use and a lack of well-being.<\/p>\n

The trial\u2019s stakes are tied to potential remedies, with the states seeking potentially tens or hundreds of billions of dollars in penalties and changes, and with Meta saying penalties could be as high as $1.4 trillion.<\/p>\n

What could change<\/p>\n

The states also seek to force Meta to set time limits for younger users and enforce restrictions to keep children under 13 offline, while attorneys general said at a hearing last week the amount could be closer to $200 billion.<\/p>\n

Meta has said penalties could be as high as $1.4 trillion, close to the Menlo Park, California-based company\u2019s market value, and Reuters reported that jurors will hear claims by all 29 states about improper collection and use of children\u2019s personal data.<\/p>\n

The Guardian described the trial as part of a broader wave of litigation, noting that a Los Angeles jury earlier this year found Meta and YouTube liable for deliberately designing an addictive product and awarded $6m to a single young claimant.<\/p>\n

NPR said the case is a bellwether in multidistrict litigation and quoted New Jersey Attorney General Jennifer Davenport saying, “They’re putting the profits \u2026 over the health of a generation of young people.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Trial in Oakland Megan O’Neill, a deputy attorney general for California, told an eight-person jury that Meta\u2019s business…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":436859,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[173375,170743,117445,170742,170741,143,145,144,170744],"class_list":["post-436858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-29-u-s-states-put-meta","tag-media-analysis","tag-media-bias","tag-news-compared","tag-news-comparison","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-technology-and-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=436858"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436858\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/436859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=436858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=436858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=436858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}