Grieving parents confronted Meta outside a California federal courthouse Tuesday as opening statements began in a landmark trial over the company’s alleged role in hooking children on social media.
Mary Rodee, whose 15-year-old son Riley Basford died by suicide in 2021, stood among mothers clutching photos of their children outside the Oakland courthouse. Rodee said that Riley was victimized by a predator on Facebook Messenger before his death. “They call it spontaneous suicide,” she said. “I call it what it was, the predictable outcome of a system that protects corporations instead of children.”
The emotional scene unfolded as attorneys delivered opening statements inside the courtroom, where California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey are leading a coalition of 29 states against Meta. The states accuse the company of deliberately designing Facebook and Instagram to keep young users hooked while misleading the public about the platforms’ risks.
Mothers stood behind a giant white sign bearing the names of nearly 600 children who advocates say were harmed by social media, including 11-year-old Giovanni and 13-year-old Bubba according to the AP.
Among the parents outside was the mother of 14-year-old Alexander Neville, who died from fentanyl after she said he was tricked by a drug dealer on Snapchat.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta, 51, addressed the crowd and spoke with NPR about the case. “We want Meta, in short, to stop hurting our kids, stop knowingly hurting our kids, stop using features that you know create mental health harms to kids,” Bonta said. “I think it’s pretty simple.”
Bonta also said before the trial that he believes this represents “the tobacco moment for Meta,” adding that “this is time for them to be held accountable.”
Inside the courtroom, California Deputy Attorney General Megan O’Neill laid out the states’ central argument to the eight-person jury. “Meta’s business model can be summed up in four simple words: ‘hook’ the users, ‘hold’ them for as long as they can, ‘harvest’ their data, and then ‘hide’ the truth from the public when making public statements,” O’Neill said.
“It worked especially well for kids,” O’Neill added. “Meta needed kids, and it needed to reassure the people who cared about those kids that the kids are safe.”
Meta pushed back hard through its attorney Paul Schmidt, who argued there is no clear evidence that social media use causes poor well-being among adolescents. “Let me be clear: Meta has talked over the years about people struggling with social media,” Schmidt said in his opening statement. “That’s something Meta takes seriously, and tries to act on.”
Schmidt said there was “no dispute” that some users struggle with social media, but argued the company does not believe its products are dangerous. “They don’t believe they’re going to do well if people don’t like their service,” he said.
The states’ first witness, former Meta safety engineer Arturo Bejar, testified about the company’s internal culture. “Move fast and break things” was a mantra at the company and safety was sometimes an afterthought, Bejar said.
“Many products were shipped into the world,” including Reels, “and safety was not a consideration in how it was initially deployed,” Bejar added.
Bejar also testified that during his second stint with the company from 2019 to 2021, Meta used the euphemism “problematic use” rather than “addiction.” “‘Problematic use’ is an example of something where they created a label and it undercounted what in some academic literature is considered to be addiction,” he said.
In the viral moment that helped spark this wave of litigation, parents and advocates have increasingly confronted tech executives and rallied outside courthouses across the country. The movement gained momentum after a Los Angeles jury in March found Meta and Google-owned YouTube negligent in designing apps that harmed a young woman, awarding her $6 million in damages. Just weeks before the Oakland trial opened, a New Mexico judge ordered Meta to pay $567 million and implement new safety measures after finding the company failed to protect young users from child sexual exploitation.
The case could have massive consequences for Meta, with the company warning that penalties could reach as high as $1.4 trillion if it loses. The states are seeking sweeping changes to Facebook and Instagram, including eliminating likes and infinite scrolling, imposing time limits on younger users and enforcing restrictions designed to keep children under 13 off the platforms.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Instagram chief Adam Mosseri are expected to testify during the trial, which is scheduled to last about six weeks before Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers.