California AG Bonta says Meta case about restitution and distortion

Following the first day of arguments in a high-stakes child safety case against Meta, California Attorney General Rob Bonta said Tuesday that the trial centers around “civil penalties, restitution and distortion,” and is not primarily about money.

“This is not a damages case,” Bonta said at a press conference after the day’s session had wrapped up.

The trial at Oakland’s federal court house is expected to last six to seven weeks. Bonta and attorneys general from Colorado, New Jersey and Kentucky are co-leading the trial against Meta, and represent a bipartisan group of 29 AGs who allege that the design and features of Facebook and Instagram encouraged addictive behavior in children and are detrimental to their mental wellbeing.

Meta’s lawyers have previously warned that the consolidated case could lead to penalties reaching $1.4 trillion, or roughly equal to the company’s market cap. State AGs told presiding federal Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers last week that $200 billion is a more likely figure.

An advisory jury was seated to hear the case, but Gonzalez Rogers will ultimately decide Meta’s fate. It’s the same setup that was in place for the trial between Elon Musk and Sam Altman earlier this year.

Attorneys representing the states allege that Meta violated federal and state laws like the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, or COPPA, and various consumer protection statutes. Bonta said the states’ lawyers “submitted documentation to the court” that included certain statistics related to the number of young users on apps like Facebook and Instagram as a rubric to determine potential civil penalties.

“To be clear, we are not asking for $1.4 trillion dollars,” Bonta said Tuesday. He said it’s the “highest possible number that could ever be calculated based on that data,” and that “It’s a figure Meta estimated.” Meta disputes that claim.

Bonta said the plaintiffs “will be asking for a significant financial gain in the form of total existing civil penalties as an important and appropriate part of this case.” He said, “The judge will exercise discretion as to what that will be.”

The trial stems from a lawsuit filed in 2023. During opening arguments, California Deputy Attorney General Megan O’Neill laid out the claims against Meta. Similar to other related social media trials, including the Los Angeles personal injury proceedings that Meta and Google’s YouTube lost in March, O’Neill focused her arguments on allegations that public statements made by executives like Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg contradicted the company’s internal research into the mental wellbeing of children and misrepresented the true extent of harm.

“Meta, one of the largest, most powerful companies in the world, carried out a campaign to deceive, to mislead its users, legislatures, teachers and parents,” O’Neill told the advisory jury.

Paul Schmidt, a Covington & Burling trial attorney representing Meta, contested O’Neill’s arguments, and disputed the notion that Meta executives misled the public with their statements about child safety.

“As you hear the evidence we will be asking you, does this prove the specific things they are claiming?” Schmidt said to the eight jury members.

For the alleged violations, the state lawyers want Meta to delete all personal data for children under 13 and the related algorithms and models trained with that information, and to remove certain design elements like infinite scroll, autoplay and beauty features.

The trial follows a recent court victory against Meta by New Mexico AG Raúl Torrez that resulted in the social media giant being directed to pay $567 million into an abatement fund as part of the second phase of a case involving child sexual exploitation allegations. The jury had already ruled in March that Meta should be forced to pay $375 million in civil penalties for violating New Mexico’s unfair practices act.

Bonta noted that Meta isn’t the only social media company in the crosshairs of various state attorneys general. He said several states “already have pending lawsuits now against TikTok,” and that he’s “also concerned about YouTube as well as Snap.” Meta is merely “first in line,” he said, in a statewide pursuit for “some industry-wide solutions.”

“Who goes first? Who goes last? Ideally, they all go at the same time,” Bonta said. “That’s not possible. In an ideal world, they would all commit to the same reforms and changes to all kids and keep them safe.”

WATCH: Landmark Meta trial kicks off. Here’s what to know.