Oakland, California – Meta knowingly hooked and exploited children, a U.S. federal court heard Tuesday in a trial against the social media giant on charges that it deliberately made Instagram and Facebook addictive to young users.
In what many experts have called social media’s “big tobacco moment,” a coalition of states is asking that Meta be penalized by around $200 billion for designing products addictive to children.
The states are intervening where “Congress failed to act,” Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser said Tuesday afternoon during a press conference, noting that — like landmark cases against tobacco companies from decades past — this case, too, involved “public health, and in some cases, marketing to kids that hurt kids.”
