Jury selection began Monday for a high-profile lawsuit in Nashville, Tennessee, against Meta, claiming that its platforms were designed to hook teenagers. The state’s attorney general says that the publicly traded company purposefully hid evidence that Instagram is addictive. Meta denies the claims.
The case lands at a moment when a growing body of lawsuits has been filed against social media platforms, alleging that big tech companies hid the deleterious mental, physical and emotional effects of social media on children.
In March, the state of New Mexico became the first state to be awarded damages from a major tech company for harming young users. In a landmark victory for the state, the jury ordered Meta to pay $375 million for violating the state’s consumer protection laws.
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Globally, other nations are establishing legal parameters for social media use by kids and teenagers. In December 2025, Australia implemented the world’s broadest social media ban for children under 16.
Starting this week in Nashville, this civil lawsuit could serve as another bellwether of how far social media companies can be held responsible for allegedly harming teens. Here’s what to expect.
What to expect from the trial
The state of Tennessee filed its civil lawsuit in October 2023 to “stop Meta Platforms Inc.’s deceptive and unfair business practices that are fomenting a mental health crisis in this state, particularly through its operation of Instagram,” the 406-page complaint stated.
Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti claims that Meta was intentionally designed to be addictive for users, especially teens. The state seeks changes to Instagram features, such as Reels, notifications and disappearing content designs. The state also seeks financial penalties.
Meta designed Instagram in a way that keeps teens scrolling longer, Skrmetti asserted, and that company leaders knew of the addictive effects.
“Instagram did not become so addictive by accident,” the complaint said. “Meta dedicated vast resources to understand Young Users’ psychology and behavior so it could better exploit Young Users’ developmental vulnerabilities through irresistible design features. Meta did this to capture an ever increasing amount of Young Users’ time and data, for the benefit of Meta’s business.”
Meta did not respond to Straight Arrow’s request for comment on the case.
During Meta’s trial in New Mexico, witnesses and industry experts “demonstrated that Meta intentionally designs its platforms to addict young people and, contrary to Meta’s public commitments, expose them to dangerous content related to eating disorders and self harm,” a March 24 press release from New Mexico’s Department of Justice stated.
The Tennessee trial will feature dozens of witnesses, including Meta executives and researchers. During Tennessee’s investigation, the attorney general’s office questioned a former director of engineering at Meta. His testimony claimed that Mark Zuckerberg and other corporate leaders knowingly created “a misleading picture of the harmfulness of Meta’s platforms,” the complaint states.
Since the lawsuit’s claims assert that some of Instagram’s features were designed to be addictive, there will likely be a look behind the curtain at how the features work. The suit also alleges that Meta chose to profit off of these addictive tendencies while pushing aside the effects on children’s mental health. The state will try to prove to the jury that Meta violated consumer protection state laws of Tennessee.
“Unlike other consumer products that have appealed to children for generations like candy or soda, with Instagram there is no natural break point where the consumer has finished the unit of consumption. Instead, Instagram is a bottomless pit where users can spend an infinite amount of their time,” the complaint asserts. “And Meta profits from each additional second a user spends on the platform. Meta has designed Instagram to exploit that dynamic.”
It is expected that Meta’s attorneys will present a vigorous defense. Meta has claimed that there is no causal link between its platforms and child harm. According to The Tennessean, Meta claims it is the content itself, rather than its platforms, that may cause harm to teens.
The trial is expected to last six or seven weeks.
This comes amid growing concern from health professionals who agree that social media has deleterious effects on youth.
In 2024, the former surgeon general wrote a guest essay for the New York Times. “The mental health crisis among young people is an emergency,” Dr. Vivek Murthy wrote, “and social media has emerged as an important contributor.”
