Tennessee attorneys told a jury in Nashville that Meta Platforms’ leadership disregarded internal research about Instagram’s impact on teenagers as the company sought to maximize profit from young users.

Internal Research Ignored

During opening statements in a seven-week trial, the state’s lawyers said Meta researchers repeatedly flagged that some teenagers were compulsively using the platform, leading to eating disorders, depression, and self-harm. However, Meta did not disable features such as autoplay, notifications, and infinite scroll that were designed to keep teens on Instagram as long as possible and increase the number of ads they viewed.

An attorney for Meta countered that the company has been transparent about the risks teens face on Instagram and the amount of dangerous content that it finds. The company works hard to find problems and fix them, he said.

Lawsuit Seeks Financial Penalties and Platform Changes

The lawsuit, filed by Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti’s office, seeks financial penalties and a court order directing Instagram to modify aspects of the platform that the state says are harmful to teens’ mental health.

If the jury finds the company liable, the trial will enter a second phase before Chancellor Russell Perkins, the judge overseeing the trial, who will decide whether to order the company to pay financial penalties and make changes to Instagram to make it safer for teens.

The case is part of a broader legal battle over social media platforms’ impact on children. Nearly every state in the country has filed claims against Meta over its platforms’ alleged impact on children.

Original reporting: Appleton, WI News Feed (HLL/CB) — read the source article.