Parents hold images of children who allegedly took their lives due to social media during a protest at the Ronald V. Dellums Federal Building & US Courthouse in Oakland, California, US, on Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2026. Meta Platforms Inc. is headed to court Tuesday for a high-stakes showdown with a coalition of state attorneys general over claims that the company deliberately designed Facebook and Instagram to encourage compulsive use among young users.
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Concerns about social media have prompted a group of attorneys general to sue Meta. Could their case change the way social media is used?
Meta’s lawyers are in federal court to defend against accusations from four state attorneys general that the company’s social media platforms are designed to hook children.
Meta denies the allegations.
We hear what happened on the first day of court.
This episode was produced by Elena Burnett, Jeffrey Pierre and Karen Zamora, with audio engineering by Robert Rodriguez. Our director is Alejandra Marquez Janse.
Our interim executive producer is Courtney Dorning, who also edited this episode along with Ravenna Koenig, Kara Platoni, Diane Webber, Janaya Williams and Mallory Yu.
Note: The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, a charity founded by Zuckerberg and his wife, is a financial supporter of NPR.
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