Zuckerberg faces potential reckoning in court over Instagram's effects on teens

SAN FRANCISCO - Meta has suffered two major defeats in state courts this year and been ordered to pay almost $1 billion in penalties and remediation for harms to teens who used platforms such as Instagram. The case headed to court in Oakland, California, was brought by the attorneys general of California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey. They demand that Meta pay as much as $1.4 trillion - almost as much as the company's total value - and redesign its products as restitution for the harms it has caused young users. The presiding judge in Oakland is Yvonne Gonzalez-Rogers, the same judge who handled Elon Musk's lawsuit against OpenAI earlier this year. The Oakland case represents just four of the 29 state governments that have sued Meta. Meta Chief Financial Officer Susan Li issued a warning about the company's legal challenges in prepared remarks to investors last month. 'We continue to see scrutiny on youth-related issues in several markets and have a number of youth-related trials scheduled for this year in the U.S., which may ultimately result in a material loss,' Li said. The company was ordered by the New Mexico judge who said the company must pay $942 million in damages and restitution to make design changes including not sending any push notifications to children during school hours and late at night.