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WATCH: Advocates for greater social media protections for kids speak outside Meta trial

PBS NewsHour (AP wire, Barbara Ortutay) · back to the audit

Opening statements were set to begin Tuesday in a pivotal Meta Platforms trial in a California federal court, where states are seeking billions of dollars in damages for social media harms to children. Attorneys general from California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey are the first group of plaintiffs; 29 states sued in 2023, with the remaining 25 to go to trial later. A financial penalty that could theoretically reach as much as $1.4 trillion. Kentucky AG Russell Coleman called it 'the largest consumer protection lawsuit in American history' and said Meta 'concealed what it knew about the harm its products cause young people.' U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers of Oakland - an Obama appointee who has overseen major Big Tech cases including Musk v. OpenAI and Epic Games v. Apple - will preside.