Meta disregarded its own research on teen harm, Tennessee lawyers tell jury

In opening statements, state argued Meta’s own research showed it harmed teens while firm’s attorneys pointed to transparency

The long-awaited trial between the social media company Meta and the state of Tennessee began proceedings on Monday. Attorneys for Tennessee told a jury in Nashville that Meta, which owns Instagram and Facebook, disregarded internal research about its platform’s impact on teenagers, while the company sought ⁠to maximize profit from those young users.

During ⁠opening statements in a seven-week ​trial in state court, the state’s lawyers said Meta researchers repeatedly flagged teenagers’ compulsive use of the platform – leading to eating disorders, depression and self-harm. But despite those warnings, Meta did not ⁠disable features such as autoplay, notifications and infinite scroll which, the lawyers said, were designed to keep teens on Instagram as long as possible and increase the number of ads they viewed.