Federal Court Judge Yvonne Gonzalez-Rogers in Oakland, California, rejected Meta Corporation’s request to dismiss a lawsuit brought against it by 29 state attorneys general.
The plaintiffs accuse the tech giant that social networks Facebook and Instagram were deliberately designed to create addiction in children and teenagers. At the same time, the company hid the risks to physical and mental health associated with using the platforms.
Judge Gonzalez-Rogers ruled that there were significant factual disputes in the case over whether Facebook and Instagram were designed to be addictive in the first place, whether Meta misled users by denying it, and whether the platforms were targeted—at least in part—to a child audience.
“The Attorneys General offer a reasonable interpretation of Meta’s claims that Facebook and Instagram were not designed to coerce teenagers into using the platforms to their detriment,” the judge wrote. “If Plaintiffs’ evidence suggests that the platforms were designed to do so, a jury is entitled to reasonably find such allegations to be false.”
The court also sided with the states on one of the key issues in the case, finding that Meta violated the requirements of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), which requires, among other things, notifying parents and obtaining their consent before collecting personal data from children under 13 years of age.