Meta hooked children and misled public—prosecutors
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August 19, 2026
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OAKLAND, United States(AFP)—Meta knowingly hooked and exploited children, a US federal court heard Tuesday in a trial against the social media giant on charges that it deliberately made Instagram and Facebook addictive to young users.
In what many experts have called social media’s “big tobacco moment,” a coalition of states is asking that Meta be penalized by around $200 billion for designing products addictive to children.
The states are intervening where “Congress failed to act,” Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser said Tuesday afternoon during a press conference, noting that — like landmark cases against tobacco companies from decades past — this case, too, involved “public health, and in some cases, marketing to kids that hurt kids.”
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