Meta says US states want to impose fines of US$1.4 trillion for 'addiction' to Facebook and Instagram

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Meta Platforms reported, in a document presented to the Court on Monday (6), that four North American states are charging US$ 1.4 trillion in fines due to accusations that the company designed the Facebook and Instagram platforms to addict young users and deceived the public about the safety of these services.
The amount was presented by Meta in response to documents filed by the states' attorneys general, which detail how penalties should be calculated if they win the trial.
The figure, now revealed for the first time and close to the company's market value, estimated at around US$ 1.5 trillion, precedes the trial scheduled for August, in Oakland, California, on the actions filed by the states of California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey.
Meta claims that the amount is not supported by the evidence in the process.
"A penalty of this size is unprecedented in the history of applying consumer protection laws," said the company in the document presented to the Court.
In a statement, the company classified the states' calculations as "absurd" and stated that they "have no basis in facts or legislation". Meta added that it will continue to defend itself against the claims presented by the states.
A spokesperson for the New Jersey Attorney General's Office declined to comment on the case, while representatives from the other states did not respond to requests for a position.
How the states arrived at the value
The documents presented by the states are confidential. However, during a hearing held in June, prosecutors explained that they calculated the fines by multiplying the number of alleged infractions by the penalty amounts provided for in state laws. According to them, the total number of infractions was estimated based on the number of adolescents and young people who would have been affected by Meta's practices.
In total, 29 states are suing Meta in Federal Court. Most of them accuse the company of violating the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) by collecting data from children without adequate parental consent.
The trial scheduled for August, led by federal judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, will consider all COPPA-related charges, in addition to allegations brought by the four states that Meta violated their consumer protection laws by misleading the public about the security of its platforms.
Instagram's logo, from Meta, and TikTok.
Reuters
Meta denies all accusations
The company argues that prosecutors have no evidence that it has deceived consumers about the alleged addictive nature of its social networks, as, according to the company, "addiction to social networks" is not an officially recognized psychiatric condition. Thus, it claims that its statements that the platforms are not addictive could not be considered false.
In addition to these lawsuits, 14 other states have filed lawsuits based on their own legislation, which will be analyzed in a separate trial, scheduled for February.
Last month, judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers rejected Meta's request to cancel the trial. According to her, there are still questions of fact that need to be analyzed, such as whether the company's platforms were really developed to generate addiction, whether Meta falsely denied having made this type of design and directed, even partially, its services to children.
After the decision, California Attorney General Rob Bonta stated that Meta put profits above children's safety and violated consumer protection laws. He promised to hold the company "fully" responsible for its role in the mental health crisis among teenagers.
Meta, Snapchat and its parent company Snap Inc., YouTube and its parent company Alphabet Inc., as well as TikTok and its parent company ByteDance, face thousands of lawsuits in federal and state courts in the United States. The lawsuits allege that these companies deliberately developed features capable of making children and teenagers dependent on their platforms, contributing to the mental health crisis among young people.
Several US states are suing these companies, some as part of the action led by Judge Rogers and others in state courts.
New Mexico was the first state to take the case to trial. In March, a jury ordered Meta to pay $375 million after concluding that the company deceived consumers in the state. Now, a New Mexico judge is analyzing the second stage of the lawsuit, which seeks additional damages and a court order to force Meta to make changes to the Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp platforms.

Source: G1