Mark Zuckerberg May Have to Testify as Meta Goes on Trial for Allegedly Addicting Teenagers

A federal courtroom in Oakland, California opened its doors to one of the most consequential trials in the history of social media on Tuesday. Opening statements began in a case brought by 33 state attorneys general against Meta, the parent company of Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp, accusing it of deliberately designing its apps to be addictive for teenagers and then lying about it to the public.

The trial, playing out before federal Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, is the result of a 2023 lawsuit filed by a bipartisan coalition of states following a multi-state investigation into Meta's safety practices. The case is expected to last approximately six weeks.

What the states are actually alleging

The core argument from the states is that Meta did not accidentally build addictive products. They allege the company knowingly engineered features including infinite scrolling, push notifications, video auto-play, and algorithmic recommendations specifically to keep young users on its platforms for as long as possible, causing measurable harm to their mental health. Four states — California, Colorado, Kentucky, and New Jersey — are suing Meta under state consumer protection laws for allegedly misleading the public about those harms. All 29 states that originally filed the case are additionally suing Meta for violating the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, or COPPA, on the grounds that the company knowingly had users under the age of 13 on its platforms and collected their data without parental consent.

The states are also seeking structural changes to Meta's apps for users under 18, including the removal of infinite scrolling, video auto-play, and public like counts.

What Meta says

Meta has pushed back firmly on the allegations. In a statement, the company said the states' claims are unsubstantiated, their financial demands disproportionate, and that the lawsuit conflates industry-wide challenges such as age verification with deliberate wrongdoing by Meta. The company has said it looks forward to making its case in court and has pointed to its record of building protections for younger users.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Instagram chief Adam Mosseri are both expected to testify at some point during the trial, according to Reuters, though no schedule has been confirmed. Earlier this year, during a separate Los Angeles trial in February, Zuckerberg testified that Instagram is designed to be useful, not addictive.

How large are the penalties

Meta itself disclosed in a court filing that the states were seeking penalties as high as 1.4 trillion dollars, an amount the company called outlandish. Judge Rogers has already indicated on the record that this number is unreasonable, but she also took issue with Meta's own proposed ceiling of four million dollars, suggesting the eventual figure, if the company loses, could land somewhere far beyond what Meta has offered but well short of what the states have demanded.

Unlike a standard jury trial, the eight-member jury in this case serves only in an advisory capacity. The judge holds full power over the final verdict and any penalties imposed.

The legal pressure building on Meta

This trial does not exist in isolation. In March, a Los Angeles jury found Meta and Google negligent in the case of a young woman who developed anxiety and depression after compulsively using social media as a child, awarding her six million dollars in damages. Shortly after, a New Mexico judge ordered Meta to pay 567 million dollars and implement new safety measures after a separate jury found the company failed to protect minors from child sexual exploitation on its platforms. Meta has said it will appeal both decisions.

The company spent 2.4 billion dollars on legal costs in the second quarter of 2026 alone, according to its own financial disclosures. A loss in Oakland would not only add to that figure but could make thousands of other pending lawsuits significantly easier to pursue.

Why it matters in India

Instagram and Facebook together have hundreds of millions of users in India, a large proportion of them teenagers. India does not yet have legislation equivalent to COPPA, and there is no equivalent legal action underway domestically, but the outcome of this trial could influence how Meta configures its products globally, including features that are currently available to Indian minors. Any structural changes Judge Rogers orders, such as the removal of infinite scroll or auto-play for users under 18, would likely apply to Meta's platforms worldwide.

The trial audio is being live-streamed on the federal court's YouTube channel.