OAKLAND, Calif. — Jury selection began Wednesday in a federal trial examining whether Meta’s social media platforms have harmed young people and violated federal law by collecting data from children.
South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley and 32 other state attorneys general are involved in litigation accusing Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, of violating the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act by collecting information from children under 13 without parental consent and using features designed to keep young users engaged.
The case is being heard in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. The trial is expected to last six to eight weeks.
The federal multidistrict litigation was filed in 2023 and includes claims from several states. However, the Oakland trial will involve the first four: California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey.
While courts have previously found that Meta failed to provide required parental notices, the broader litigation continues over what the company knew about its platforms and how they affected children.
The case is part of a growing wave of lawsuits against Meta and other social media companies, including Google’s YouTube, TikTok and Snap, over allegations that their platforms contribute to mental health problems among young people, improperly collect children’s data and are intentionally designed to be addictive.
Last week, a New Mexico court ordered Meta to pay $567 million to address harms to young people caused by its platforms. That penalty came after jurors in March ordered Meta to pay $375 million in civil penalties after finding the company knowingly harmed children’s mental health and concealed what it knew about child sexual exploitation on its platforms.
Matthew Bergman, founding attorney of the Social Media Victims Law Center, served as plaintiffs’ counsel in that landmark social media addiction trial. He also participated in an Emily’s Hope Youth Prevention Coalition panel discussion in Sioux Falls earlier this year following a screening of the Emmy Award-winning documentary “Can’t Look Away.”
“It’s a fight I’ve spent 30 years training for,” Bergman said during the Sioux Falls discussion. “It’s challenging—intellectually challenging, emotionally draining, but also very, very rewarding. I feel like this work has some of the same moral resonance that the Civil Rights movement had in the 1960s in that, by standing up for these parents, I’m really fulfilling my highest and best use as a lawyer.”
Bergman represents more than 4,000 families nationwide in lawsuits involving alleged social media-related harms, including cases involving online drug sales and youth suicide.
“The issues raised in this litigation are important to South Dakota parents and children, and the Attorneys General are fully prepared to present our case and pursue accountability,” Jackley said.
The states are seeking financial penalties and changes to Meta’s platforms that they say would make them safer for children.
Meta has said it has introduced dozens of features designed to protect young users and make its platforms safer. The company plans to appeal the New Mexico rulings.
