USA: Tennessee trial against Meta over Instagram’s alleged addictive design begins
“Tennessee to put Instagram on trial over accusations it harmed teens”, 17 July 2026
Instagram is going on trial in Tennessee.
The Tennessee Attorney General Office’s fight against social media giant Meta, which owns the photo sharing app, is coming to a head, with a historic, monthslong trial slated to begin in Nashville court on July 20.
The state sued Meta in October 2023, arguing that Instagram is “unfairly and deceptively addictive and harmful, particularly to young people,” as Chancellor Russell Perkins summarized the case in a 2024 ruling…
Tennessee’s trial is expected to last six to seven weeks…
Meta or its executives have rejected causal links between social media and poor teen mental health, pointed to Instagram’s safety features like “Teen Accounts” and argued harms linked to Instagram are attributable to content and not the design of the platform.
…The Attorney General's Office argues features like infinite scroll, stories that disappear after short periods and how notifications are sent "foster compulsive and problematic use” among teens…
Asked about accusations that it has intentionally designed Instagram so teens would become addicted, a Meta spokesperson told The Tennessean, “The reverse is true.”
“We’ve intentionally designed automatic defaults like Sleep Mode that encourage teens to leave the app and pause notifications over night,”… “Parents can go even further by restricting their teens’ total time…
Part of Tennessee’s — and other states’ — key claims is that Meta did not warn teens of the risks that Tennessee alleges they faced. Meta touts its content moderation, with a spokesperson telling The Tennessean, “We provide industry-leading transparency, regularly sharing data on how much violating content we remove and how much we miss.”
“Hundreds of thousands of Tennessee teens use social media every day to talk to their friends and families, explore their interests, and find support when they need it,” a Meta spokesperson said…