WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, is at the center of two high-stakes court cases this week. The cases focus on allegations that the company's products have failed to protect children and young users.
In the first case, the Attorney General of New Mexico, Raúl Torrez, has accused Meta of creating products that enable online predators to target and exploit minors. The lawsuit, filed in 2023, claims that Meta's platforms steered users, including children, toward sexually explicit material and even facilitated human trafficking.
Torrez seeks not only financial penalties but also changes to Meta's product design, such as implementing real age verification and clearer disclosures about the risks.
Simultaneously, a separate trial is underway in Los Angeles. This case involves Meta, as well as other social media companies, including YouTube, TikTok, and Snap.
The plaintiffs allege that these companies knowingly designed addictive features that harm young users' mental health. TikTok and Snap have already settled with one plaintiff before the trial. This week, Instagram chief Adam Mosseri and Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg are expected to testify.
Legal experts draw parallels between these cases and the landmark Big Tobacco lawsuits of the 1990s. The focus is not on individual content but on whether the design of the products themselves poses a danger to users, particularly young people.
Later this year, another major federal trial in California will further test this theory, potentially reshaping how social media platforms are regulated in the United States.
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