A federal judge has refused to throw out a lawsuit accusing Meta Platforms of building Facebook and Instagram to be addictive to children while hiding what it knew about the harm this caused. U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland, California made the ruling late Monday, rejecting Meta’s bid to dismiss claims tied to deception, unfair business practices, and violations of the federal Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act.
On top of that, the judge found Meta had not met the law’s notice and parental consent requirements, and sided with the states outright on that particular issue.
Meta’s Response
Meta had argued that the states lacked proof it deceived the public about how addictive its apps are, pointing in part to CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s own congressional testimony. The company’s position was that “social media addiction” isn’t a recognized psychiatric diagnosis, so its denials of addictive design couldn’t be considered false.
Meta also maintained that its child-privacy obligations didn’t apply broadly, since it says Facebook and Instagram are aimed at a general audience rather than children under 13 specifically.
The Case in Hand
The judge wasn’t convinced that settled the matter. In her 38-page ruling, Gonzalez Rogers pointed to unresolved factual disputes over whether Meta’s platforms are actually addictive, whether the company lied about designing them that way, and whether Facebook and Instagram were, in her words, “partially” aimed at kids. She wrote that the states have offered a plausible reading of Meta’s public statements, and left it up to a jury to decide whether those statements were misleading.
Gonzalez Rogers isn’t just handling this case. She also oversees a separate, larger multidistrict lawsuit involving more than 2,600 plaintiffs, including individuals, school districts, and local governments, over whether platforms like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, and TikTok were built to hook children.
For now, a trial covering claims brought by California, Colorado, Kentucky, and New Jersey is set to begin on August 18. Meta has pushed back publicly on the allegations, saying it disagrees with them and stands by its record on supporting young users.
