Meta on trial

**Bisi Akdebayo** (0:01)
Is social media designed to keep young people hooked?

**Dawson Kelly** (0:04)
As a child, I was unknowingly subject in a great experiment.

**Nick Hodry** (0:08)
Meta cannot say that getting our engagement was a side effect, something they didn't plan. It was the whole point.

**Bisi Akdebayo** (0:15)
It's World Business Report from the BBC World Service.
I am Bisi Akdebayo. Coming up, Meta goes on trial over claims that deliberately keeps young people scrolling. The company denies all the allegations. Also, a family battle over the LA Lakers. And as jet fuel costs rise, will flight costs ever come back down?
So how long have you spent scrolling through Facebook or Instagram today? And more importantly, what made you keep scrolling? Well, that question is at the heart of a major trial getting underway in California, where Meta is accused of deliberately designing its platforms to keep young people hooked. Four US states are seeking billions of dollars from the company as part of a wider case brought by 29 states. A lawyer for California told the court Meta's business model was to hook users, keep them there for as long as possible and harvest their data. Well, this is something youth advocate Dawson Kelly said outside the federal courthouse in Auckland today.

**Dawson Kelly** (1:23)
I was a guinea pig.
As a child, I was unknowingly subject in a great experiment, one in which the company inside that courthouse reduced my childhood into watch time and sold it to advertisers. One in which people who understood my brain better than I did, knowingly and deliberately addicted me to apps that pulled me out of the real world and stunted my growth.

**Bisi Akdebayo** (1:49)
Meta strongly denies the allegations and says it has a long-standing commitment to supporting young people. Our North America business correspondent Lili Jamali has been at the Federal Court in Auckland. Lili, you've been inside the courtroom. Tell us what you've heard so far.

**Lili Jamali** (2:06)
So we've heard opening statements from both sides in this case today, starting with Megan O'Neill, who is a Deputy Attorney General for the state of California. She started the day off by accusing Meta of hiding the truth about potential harms that are posed by its platform, so Instagram and Facebook. And what she tried to do is really draw a contrast between public statements that we've heard from people like Mark Zuckerberg, who of course is the head of Meta, the head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri. People like that trying to reassure the public that their platforms are safe, that they're not concerned.
And contrast that with internal documents, internal research that shows that the company was very aware that young users, people as young as 13 in some cases, were being exposed to bullying, were being exposed to violent images, nudity and the like.
And I think she's going to be continuing to make her case. She actually got through her arguments. And then we heard from Meta, which said that they've been very transparent about the potential harms. And have used that internal research to develop tools to make their platform safer.

**Bisi Akdebayo** (3:16)
And what are the states then ultimately asking the court to do if they win?

**Lili Jamali** (3:21)
The states are asking for penalties, but more importantly, perhaps, they're asking for changes to the business model that Meta uses right now, which is very dependent on harvesting data and selling it to advertisers. What they want to see is features either removed or changed, features that I think a lot of our listeners are probably very familiar with. Infinite scroll, likes, notifications.
If they are able to win in this first phase of the case, then they can go and ask for those remedies as they're known. But we aren't quite there yet.

**Bisi Akdebayo** (3:57)
And with Mark Zuckerberg possibly going to testify, how important could his appearance be to the case?

**Lili Jamali** (4:04)
I think it could be incredibly important, certainly very impactful because when an executive like him walks into a courtroom, especially when he's playing defense, the entire atmosphere changes.
The question is going to be to jurors, is he credible? He does come with a reputation, he's a household name. Pretty much everybody has heard of Mark Zuckerberg, but jurors have been asked to leave their previous impressions, their previous notions about social media addiction at the door and to come to this case with a blank slate so they can be fair.

**Bisi Akdebayo** (4:37)
Thanks, Lily Jamali, our North America business correspondent. Well, let's take a wider look at what's behind all of this. I spoke with Nick Hodry, who is a professor of media communications and social at the London School of Economics.