A seven-week trial began Monday in Nashville between the state of Tennessee and Meta, the owner of Instagram and Facebook. During opening statements in state court, attorneys for Tennessee alleged that Meta's leadership disregarded internal research regarding the impact of its Instagram platform on teenagers in an effort to maximize profits from young users.
State lawyers told the jury that Meta researchers repeatedly flagged the compulsive use of the platform, which led to depression, self-harm, and eating disorders. A 2017 document presented by the state indicates that Meta concluded the features designed to keep teenagers glued to Instagram were inherently at odds with well-being, yet the company chose to say nothing about these findings.
The state argued that despite these warnings, Meta failed to disable features such as infinite scroll, notifications, and autoplay. These features were allegedly designed to keep teenagers on Instagram as long as possible to increase advertising revenue and the number of ads viewed.