Meta knowingly hooked children and misled public, prosecutors tell court

Meta-hooked and exploited children, a federal court heard on Tuesday in the trial of the social media giant. A coalition of state attorneys general is seeking $200 billion in civil penalties, claiming the tech giant purposefully used features designed to foster addiction among children. We laid out our case today, which is essentially this, that Meta has designed and deployed dangerous product, a dangerous product with dangerous features that they knew would create excessive use and compulsive use by children. Grieving parents gathered outside the courtroom to demand accountability, attributing their children's suicides directly to social media usage. Zuckerberg looked the public in the eye and said their platforms were safe. Well, Mark, look me in the eye because you're a liar. Knowing that within 20 minutes is all it took to get to my son, I just, we know these platforms are targeting them. They were playing sports. They were happy. And then in 20 minutes, life changed. The legal action began with an initial 2023 lawsuit brought by a 29-state coalition. The suit addresses three primary claims. Meta lied to the public about how dangerous its apps are for minors, designed features specifically to get them hooked and stay online, and gathered data on children under the age of 13 without parental consent. Meta denies all allegations. The trial is scheduled to last six weeks, with a verdict expected by October.