Jury selection began Monday in Davidson County Chancery Court in Tennessee’s lawsuit against Meta Platforms, launching what is expected to be a weeks-long trial over allegations that Instagram was intentionally designed to encourage compulsive use among children and teenagers.
Filed in October 2023 by Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti, the lawsuit alleges Meta violated the Tennessee Consumer Protection Act by knowingly designing Instagram to maximize engagement among young users while misleading the public about the platform’s safety.
Today, along with 42 other states, TN AG Skrmetti filed an historic lawsuit against Meta to hold them accountable for knowingly building their platforms to make money by harming kids. Read more: https://t.co/d77tyoBn18 pic.twitter.com/dzm5tIpoEH
— TN Attorney General (@AGTennessee) October 24, 2023
At the center of Tennessee’s case is the state’s claim that Instagram’s addictive nature was the result of deliberate design choices rather than unintended consequences.
“Instagram did not become so addictive by accident. Meta dedicated vast resources to understand Young Users’ psychology and behavior so it could better exploit Young Users’ developmental vulnerabilities through irresistible design features. Meta did this to capture an ever-increasing amount of Young Users’ time and data, for the benefit of Meta’s business,” the complaint states.
The lawsuit alleges Meta relied on extensive behavioral research and product testing to develop features that encourage repeated engagement among minors despite internal evidence that the platform could negatively affect their mental health.
Earlier this year, Skrmetti identified the Meta lawsuit as one of his office’s top priorities during an exclusive interview with The Tennessee Star’s CEO and Editor-in-Chief Michael Patrick Leahy, saying Tennessee assembled a specialized trial team to take on the tech giant.
“We’re dealing with a company that has unlimited resources,” Skrmetti said at the time.
He also argued that Meta intentionally engineered its products to maximize engagement through sophisticated behavioral design techniques.
“They have optimized their product over decades using neuroscientists and casino designers and A/B testing on the big scale level,” Skrmetti said.
“When you look at the mental health statistics over the population level, they’ve plummeted for kids. The company knows that it’s hurting them. There’s a lot of evidence from internal communications of that. They did it, they can undo it, they can make the product safer for kids. They can warn people about the impact rather than say that there’s no harm from it,” he added.
Unlike many consumer protection cases which often focus on financial penalties, Tennessee is also seeking injunctive relief requiring changes to Instagram’s design.
The state is asking the court to impose civil penalties of up to $1,000 per violation, require Meta to disclose risks associated with Instagram to young users, and permanently bar the company from using features Tennessee alleges encourage compulsive use among children and teens. The complaint also seeks reimbursement for the state’s legal expenses and other costs related to the case.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network.
