Meta disregarded its own research on teen harm, Tennessee tells jury
The state of Tennessee has sued Meta, alleging that the company knowingly ignored internal research regarding the negative mental health impacts of Instagram on teenagers. The state claims Meta prioritized profit by designing features that encourage addictive behavior in young users.
Why it matters
This trial represents a significant legal challenge to the business models of major social media platforms regarding child safety and digital addiction.
Attorneys for the state of Tennessee told a jury in Nashville on Monday that Meta Platforms’ leadership disregarded internal research about its Instagram platform’s impact on teenagers as the company sought to maximize profit from young users. During opening statements in a seven-week trial in state court in Tennessee, the state’s lawyers said Meta researchers repeatedly flagged that some teenagers were compulsively using the platform, leading to eating disorders, depression and self-harm.
But despite those warnings, Meta did not disable features such as autoplay, notifications and infinite scroll that, the lawyers said, were designed to keep teens on Instagram as long as possible and increase the number of ads they viewed.
An attorney for Meta countered that the company has been transparent about the risks teens face on Instagram and the amount of dangerous content that it finds. The company works hard to find problems and fix them, he said.
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