Meta went on trial in Nashville on Monday over Tennessee’s allegation that it engineered Instagram to keep teenagers compulsively scrolling, one of the first state cases to put the question of addictive design before a jury.
Jury selection began on 20 July in a proceeding expected to run about seven weeks, part of a wider wave of litigation in which a federal judge recently cleared states to argue that Meta hooked children on its apps.
Tennessee’s attorney general, Jonathan Skrmetti, contends the company deliberately built features such as autoplay, Reels, notifications, and disappearing posts to maximise engagement among minors while publicly playing down the risks.
The complaint also alleges Meta buried internal research linking Instagram to youth harm, an accusation that runs through a separate $1.4 trillion penalty demand four other states have filed for an August trial in California.
The 💜 of EU techThe latest rumblings from the EU tech scene, a story from our wise ol' founder Boris, and some questionable AI art. It's free, every week, in your inbox. Sign up now!The state says internal documents show executives, including chief executive Mark Zuckerberg, were warned about the app’s effect on teenagers and were slow to respond.
