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Meta will face another trial over allegations that Instagram was designed to be addictive. Tennessee claims the platform was built to keep teens hooked, contributing to a youth mental-health crisis. The state accuses Meta of violating consumer protection law by knowingly designing Instagram to encourage compulsive use and misleading the public about its safety. Tennessee seeks penalties and an order requiring platform-level changes.
Meta faces a Tennessee trial over claims of Instagram’s addictive design
The lawsuit, filed by Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti’s office, claims that Meta failed to disclose internal research showing Instagram could harm teens and continued offering features it knew could be harmful without warning users. The state alleges that Meta employees warned CEO Mark Zuckerberg about research showing Instagram could harm teens but did not support efforts to address those and made misleading public statements about harmful content on the platform.
Skrmetti is seeking financial penalties and a court order directing Instagram to modify the areas of the platform that the state claims are harmful to teens. It focuses on features like Reels, videos, notifications, autoplay, and others.
Meanwhile, Meta’s spokesperson reportedly said that the company already has built-in controls in place. These are there to protect the Tennessee teens who use social media. “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 will last for seven weeks
On its part, the company argued that the state’s claims are based on the content posted on Instagram by users. It adds that a federal law, Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, shields it from liability for third-party content. The jury selection has already begun (as of July 20th, Monday) in Nashville for the first phase of the trial. Jurors will determine whether Meta broke Tennessee’s consumer protection law. If found guilty, the judge will decide possible monetary penalties and whether Instagram needs to make changes. The fines can potentially reach $1,000 per violation.
The Tennessee trial will last for seven weeks. It’ll overlap with at least two other trials against the company in California as it faces thousands of similar lawsuits in both state and federal court. At this point, almost every state in the country has filed claims against Meta over its platforms’ impact on teens.
A separate trial involving Meta will begin on August 18 in a California federal court. The case involves claims from 29 states that Meta violated federal child data protection laws, along with additional state-level claims from California, Colorado, Kentucky, and New Jersey.
Similar trials
Another trial involving Meta and Snap Inc. will begin on July 27. A 15-year-old Florida boy, who claims social media platforms harmed his mental health, filed the case. For what it’s worth, the tech giants have denied the allegations in these lawsuits. They argue that they have sought to protect children and should not be liable for claims based on content posted by their users.
Tennessee’s case is the second state-led lawsuit against Meta to go to trial. Earlier this year, a New Mexico jury found that Meta misled users about the safety of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. The jury awarded the state $375 million in damages. The judge held a separate bench trial over New Mexico’s claim that the company had created a public nuisance. They’re currently considering whether Meta should face additional penalties and needs to make changes.
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