Other platforms face separate suits, and related settlements include over $1 billion in a New Mexico verdict and a $27 million multi-state district settlement in Kentucky tied to similar harms to children.

Meta faces a new federal trial in Oakland, California, starting with jury selection in mid-August 2026 to determine whether it intentionally made Instagram and Facebook addictive for minors, with potential penalties reaching up to 1.4 trillion dollars.

The four-state suit accuses COPPA violations and consumer protection breaches, arguing design features like infinite scrolling, frequent notifications, and visible like counts were crafted to keep minors engaged, circumventing platform content immunities.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg is expected to be a star witness for the prosecution, alongside prior testimony; Meta defends its teen protections, argues some claims are shielded by free speech protections, and notes mental health is an industry-wide issue.

The Oakland case is part of a broader wave of tech-liability lawsuits, including actions against TikTok, Snapchat, and YouTube by families, school districts, and prosecutors seeking accountability for youth harms.

The lawsuit builds on the 2021–2023 exposure of the Facebook Files, which revealed internal research about potential harms to teens and spurred multistate investigations and lawsuits.

Disclosures from the Facebook Files showed internal study findings that Instagram could harm some teenage girls, triggering a broad slate of investigations and civil actions against major social platforms.

The four-state case follows these disclosures and the broader pattern of investigations into Meta, driven by revelations about internal research on teen harm.

A prior Los Angeles trial found Meta and YouTube liable for a teenager’s social media addiction, resulting in a $6 million award, while New Mexico ordered Meta to pay more than $0.5 billion and implement changes, with Meta appealing.

Public proceedings will be streamed on YouTube without live video, and testimony from families of affected adolescents may be heard during the trial.

Meta contends that free-speech protections apply, argues mental-health issues are industry-wide, and plans to appeal related rulings while denying wrongdoing.

The company emphasizes that the case targets design features rather than user posts and relies on immunity frameworks for platforms while contesting most related decisions.