Meta lawsuits: Is social media facing a global legal reckoning?
Al Jazeera · LC · trust 64/100
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x whatsapp-stroke copylink google Add Al Jazeera on Google info People are seen behind the logo for Meta Platforms, during a conference in Mumbai, India, September 20, 2023 [Francis Mascarenhas/Reuters] By Marthe van der Wolf Published On 18 Aug 2026 18 Aug 2026 Opening statements begin on Tuesday in a major, multistate jury trial in the United States against Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, and which is facing a host of regulatory and legal actions in Europe and beyond.
The US trial opening in the state of California, which could reportedly cost Meta $1.4 trillion in damages, alleges that the social media giant designed addictive social media platforms that are harming the mental health of young people and could significantly change the way these platforms operate if successful, experts say.
US state attorneys general who are bringing the case also say they are concerned about how data on younger users is collected without consent from their guardians.
The case highlights several specific features of these platforms which, according to the attorneys general, specifically harm younger children, such as continuous scrolling and algorithm prompts.
With regulatory action ongoing in Europe and beyond, we look at the impact these cases could have on the workings of social media giants.
Twenty-nine US states have grouped to accuse Meta of designing its platforms in ways that “encourage addictive behaviour, fail to verify users’ ages, encourage adolescents to bypass parental controls, and inadequately safeguard against harmful content and/or intentionally amplify harmful and exploitive content”, according to the filings at the Court of Appeal in California, US.
The first four of the states which filed a federal lawsuit against Meta in 2023 – California, Kentucky, Colorado and New Jersey – will begin outlining their cases on Tuesday.
Besides damages, the attorneys general bringing the case are also asking the court to order that changes be made to Meta’s platforms to protect young social media users.
Among other measures, they are demanding that Meta implement a process of parental verification for teenage users; change its “dopamine-manipulating” algorithms; remove image filters for users’ personal images; forbid the creation of multiple accounts; and end “disappearing” messages and posts.
Jury selection was completed last week. The trial is expected to run for about seven weeks, but extra time may be needed if there are unforeseen developments.
A verdict is unlikely to be the final word in the case, as Meta is expected to appeal any decision not in its favour.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is expected to testify in court, together with the head of Instagram. This will be the second time this year that the Facebook founder has testified, after his February 2026 appearance in a Los Angeles court over similar allegations against Meta. Meta lost that multimillion-dollar case , brought by a young woman referred to as KGM, over platform features linked to addiction in younger users, in March.
Sonia Livingstone, a professor at the London School of Economics and director of the Digital Futures for Children Centre, told Al Jazeera the case is highly significant.
“It seems unlikely Meta would completely transform the business model or completely remake the feed. But they will surely take some steps to reduce the problem,” she said.
Instead, Livingstone added, the tech company may choose to focus more on moderation and tweaking the platform for those aged below 18.
Nonprofit organisation 5Rights Foundation, which focuses on digital safety, said the case against Meta is an essential first step towards making tech safe for children. “Lawsuits like this can change the practices of tech companies, but only if they are backed by clear rules that are consistently and meaningfully enforced, with penalties large enough to impact their bottom line,” it told Al Jazeera.
This is just the latest in a string of lawsuits being faced by Meta in the US.
Earlier this month, a judge in New Mexico ordered Meta to pay $567m and change how its platforms function for young users in the state after ruling that the company was to blame for harming children’s mental health.
The California case could go further, legal experts say. Julia Powles, executive director of the UCLA Institute for Technology, Law and Policy, told CNBC, “California matters more than any other jurisdiction in the US. It’s where they are subject to the greatest legal reach, and it’s a jurisdiction watched around the world.”
Another 14 US states are set to begin a separate trial against Meta in February 2027.
While action against social media giants in the US is mostly taking the form of lawsuits, elsewhere it is regulators who are leading the charge.
The EU is pursuing several legal and regulatory cases against Meta, covering antitrust rules for artificial intelligence (AI) on WhatsApp, child safety protections and addictive platform features under the Digital Services Act (DSA).
In 2024, EU regulators opened a formal investigation into Meta for potential breaches of online content rules relating to child safety on its Facebook and Instagram platforms.
The European Commission (EC) said it was concerned that the algorithmic systems used by the popular social media platforms to recommend videos and posts could “exploit the weaknesses and…
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