{"id":752129,"date":"2026-07-09T07:43:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T07:43:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/752129\/"},"modified":"2026-07-09T07:43:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T07:43:15","slug":"zuckerberg-rips-damages-sought-in-social-media-lawsuit-by-california-others","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/752129\/","title":{"rendered":"Zuckerberg Rips Damages Sought In Social Media Lawsuit By California, Others"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tMark Zuckerberg<\/a> might think those Kylie Jenner-branded Meta<\/a> smart glasses are cool, but you know what is really cool? Not having to pay California and three other states virtually the entire valuation of your company.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Social Network script paraphrasing aside, that\u2019s the position Meta\u2019s multi-firm attorneys are taking in the multi-plaintiff suit over litigation the Instagram<\/a> parent company and other social media<\/a> platforms are facing in federal court. \u201cA sanction of that size has no analog in the history of consumer protection enforcement,\u201d Meta\u2019s defense team(s) proclaimed in a deep-dive filing this week.<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tTaking a massive bite outta Meta\u2019s bottom line, state attorneys general like California\u2019s Rob Bonta<\/a> (hello David Ellison, see you soon) and his colleagues in Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey allege the Zuckerberg outfit actively misleads consumers. To the quartet, those so-called deceptive data moves and more translates into \u201cunfair or unconscionable trade practices.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tPractices that should force Meta to pay up to $1.4 trillion in damages if the verdict is in the states\u2019 favor. <\/p>\n

\n\tYes, you read that right \u2014 $1.4 trillion. Just to put that in perspective: Meta\u2019s full net worth is just over $1.5 trillion. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe AGs ask this Court to make Meta pay over one trillion dollars,\u201d the somewhat redacted filing from Meta lead firm Covington & Burling states.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThat figure is the construct of lawyers, assembled by mixing and matching data from disparate sources to manufacture the largest possible sum, and by counting the same individuals many times over,\u201d the Ashley M. Simonsen signed document adds, mocking the math and asking Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers to toss most of the demands.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe AGs cannot identify any UPA or COPPA case imposing penalties approaching that amount. Meta has not found any case, under any cause of action, where one defendant was ordered to pay over one trillion dollars\u2014or any number remotely close to that staggering figure.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAs various local school boards settle with the tech giants in this latest social media case about to go before an Oakland jury next month, 29 states overall are still claiming that Meta, as well as Snap<\/a> and TikTok<\/a>, violated the Children\u2019s Online Privacy Protection Act via data collection practices.<\/p>\n

\n\tIf this all sounds a bit like the teen-centric trials in L.A. and New Mexico from earlier this year, <\/a>it is because they are similar. In fact, challenging the rules of the digital road the tech lords have lucratively paved for themselves, the cases are but three of more than 2,000 such suits moving through a plethora of courts<\/a> across the land against social media companies.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tLos Angeles Superior Court<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGetty Images<\/p>\n

\n\tAs they have in the L.A. and New Mexico cases it lost and is appealing, Meta insists its algorithm-driven products are safe and that responsibility for underage use lies with parents not corporations. The Silicon Valley-based company also takes a swing at state pols like Bonta in what is an increasingly partisan battlefield.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe plaintiffs\u2019 outlandish calculations have no basis in fact or law,\u201d a Meta spokesperson told Deadline after the filings by their lawyers this week. \u201cWe\u2019ll continue to defend ourselves against headline-seeking demands that are untethered from reality.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tFor their part, Bonta\u2019s office is turning the other cheek to Meta\u2019s damages reaction.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cOur lawsuit alleges Meta has prioritized profits over the safety of kids and fueled the mental health crisis we see impacting a generation of American children,\u201d a spokesperson for California\u2019s top lawman told Deadline. \u201cThe California Department of Justice looks forward to holding Meta fully accountable at trial in August. Beyond this, we have no other updates at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn one update, Meta stock shed 2% Wednesday to close at $603.12. They have fallen nearly 9% in 2026 to date as investors assess its heavy spending on AI infrastructure and consumer products like a new line of smart glasses.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the meantime, while no one is saying anything publicly, Bonta, New York\u2019s Letitia James<\/a>\u00a0and a collection of other Blue State AGs are putting the final touches on an action on the $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery by Ellison\u2019s Paramount Skydance<\/a>. Delayed a few weeks, the potential suit<\/a> aims to halt all the fast-tracked approvals <\/a>the deal has already received from self-declared Ellison \u201cgood friend\u201d Donald Trump and his administration.<\/p>\n

\n\tPut on your shades, it\u2019s about to get blinding out there.<\/p>\n

\n\tDade Hayes contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mark Zuckerberg might think those Kylie Jenner-branded Meta smart glasses are cool, but you know what is really…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":752130,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[28,10414,4136,49710,12424,1282,48502,93508,2151,108,74,1153],"class_list":["post-752129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-facebook","tag-instagram","tag-letitia-james","tag-mark-zuckerberg","tag-meta","tag-paramount-skydance","tag-rob-bonta","tag-snap","tag-social-media","tag-technology","tag-tiktok"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/752129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=752129"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/752129\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/752130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=752129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=752129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=752129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}