Meta sued by US states for hooking and exploiting kids in pursuit of profit

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 penalised 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". During opening statements, California prosecutor Megan O'Neill painted Meta's business model as one intended to "hook the users, hold them for as long as they can, harvest their data, and then hide the truth from the public". To display this content from YouTube, you must enable advertisement tracking and audience measurement. One of your browser extensions seems to be blocking the video player from loading. To watch this content, you may need to disable it on this site. C...