Meta Faces a $1.4 Trillion Lawsuit in the U.S.

In a court filing submitted on Monday, Meta revealed that four U.S. states are seeking a staggering $1.4 trillion penalty against the company. The lawsuit alleges that Meta deliberately designed Facebook and Instagram to encourage addictive use among children and teenagers while misleading the public about the safety of its platforms.

In its filing, Meta described the proposed penalty as unprecedented.

"A sanction of this magnitude is without precedent in the history of consumer protection enforcement," the company stated.

The amount sought, which had not previously been made public, is close to Meta's current market value of approximately $1.5 trillion.

The lawsuit was filed by the states of California, Colorado, Kentucky, and New Jersey. The trial is scheduled to begin in August in federal court in Oakland, California.

According to the states, the requested penalty is based on the number of alleged violations multiplied by the statutory fines established under each state's consumer protection laws. The number of violations, they argue, is based on estimates of how many teenagers and young users were allegedly harmed by Meta's conduct.

Meanwhile, 29 additional states have filed a separate federal lawsuit against Meta. That case focuses primarily on alleged violations of the federal Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, claiming that the company collected data from children without obtaining the parental consent required by law.

The August trial is expected to address both the privacy allegations and the claims brought by the four states that Meta misled consumers about the safety of using Facebook and Instagram.

Meta has denied all of the allegations.

Among its arguments, the company maintains that there is no evidence it misled users about the addictive nature of its platforms because "social media addiction" is not recognized as an official psychiatric disorder. Meta also argues that the states' demand for a $1.4 trillion penalty lacks both legal and factual support.

Last month, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers rejected Meta's request to dismiss the case, ruling that factual disputes must be resolved at trial. Among the issues to be examined are whether Meta's platforms are in fact addictive, whether the company falsely denied designing them to encourage addictive behavior, and whether the platforms were intentionally targeted toward children.

Meta is not the only technology company facing such legal challenges.

Alphabet, the parent company of YouTube, Snap, the parent company of Snapchat, and ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, are also facing thousands of lawsuits across the United States. Those cases similarly allege that the companies intentionally designed features to encourage excessive use among children and teenagers, contributing to harm to their mental health.