What to know about Meta trial over youth mental health

A federal trial in Oakland, California, pitting four states against Mark Zuckerberg's Meta aims to decide whether the social media giant's many platforms are damaging to youth mental health.

California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey are facing off against the parent company of Facebook and Instagram as part of a lawsuit filed on behalf of New York and more than half the states nationwide. Meta "lied to the public" about its internal knowledge that its social media platforms were "harmful" to youth mental health, California Attorney General Rob Bonta told reporters Tuesday evening after the trial’s first day concluded.

Here are some questions and answers about the trial and potential changes to social media platforms as a result.

What's potentially at stake for Meta?

Earlier this month, Meta lost a state lawsuit brought by New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez and was ordered to address concerns of child exploitation, improve age verification features and limit access for young people. The judge’s ruling, which the company said it plans to appeal, "is not great for Meta," Vincent Joralemon, the director of the Life Sciences Law & Policy Center at the Berkeley Center for Law & Technology, told Newsday.

Should the jury in Oakland rule against Meta, the company could be forced to pay an "eye-watering" amount of money in civil penalties and restitution, Joralemon said. New York and 24 other states would be up next in court unless a settlement is reached, other legal experts said. Many have likened the nationwide battle against the company to the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement, which resulted in companies changing advertising practices and paying states hundreds of billions of dollars for health costs due to their products.

"It may take a few more cases, but I would not be surprised to see a consolidation of cases and a major settlement," said Susan Drucker, an attorney and a professor at Hofstra University’s Lawrence Herbert School of Communication. "There's enough similarity that it would not be completely surprising to see a Big Tobacco kind of moment."

How could the trial impact the social media industry?

Experts said a loss for Meta could lead to stronger barriers to social media use or overuse for children and teens, including through strengthening age verification procedures and even limiting the number of hours or the times during the day they could access Facebook or Instagram. Meta and other companies could also be forced, externally or internally, to change the designs of their products, such as eliminating or instituting some freezing mechanism on the infinite scroll.

Meta recently reported a profit decline, citing legal expenses among other factors, which Joralemon pointed to as a warning sign for the company.

"I think their investors are spooked over this," Joralemon said. "Money never lies, so I think that is an indication that people are really thinking this is pretty existential toward Meta."

How does this case compare to other lawsuits against Meta?

The recent high-profile cases against Meta include the New Mexico trial, which ended after a jury determined the company violated state consumer protection law for failing to protect children from sexual predators, according to Drucker.

One comparable case to the Oakland trial was settled in March in Los Angeles, where a judge ordered Meta, as well as Google, the parent company of YouTube, to pay a combined $6 million in damages for designing products to which a young woman became addicted through features such as the infinite scroll of short clips and posts.

Meta announced plans to appeal the New Mexico case and is appealing the Los Angeles decision.

Many previous suits against internet-based companies have focused on privacy, protecting children against predators and the content distributed through their platforms. In the Los Angeles and Oakland cases, the plaintiffs pointed to the design of the Meta platforms as the cause of harm.

"Meta is not being accused of providing content or addictive content, but of facilitating exposure to such content through design features like infinite scroll, autoplay, push notifications, algorithmic engagement. Those are baked into the design of the platform," Drucker said. "They're being accused of creating harm through the features that are part of the platform, rather than generating harm through the content itself."

What are parents’ concerns regarding social media that the trial could address?

If the trial results in limiting social media access for young people, experts said that could help curb what many call digital or social media "addiction." However, some note that such a condition is not recognized, at least not yet, in the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the leading guide for mental health diagnoses.

Many experts, including Matthew Salzano, an assistant professor at Stony Brook University’s School of Communication and Journalism who studies the intersection of digital culture and digital technology, said it's difficult to prove a causational relationship between social media use and youth mental health issues. However, for many parents and teachers, attorneys general arguing that Meta’s products are addictive is "resonating," he said.

"It lands with all the narratives we’ve been hearing about mental health effects of social media and phone bans," Salzano said. "I think this case is giving some people hope that maybe things could change."

The Associated Press contributed to this story.