States Seek To Combine Meta Social Media Addiction Lawsuit Claims Into Single Trial

First trial seeking damages on behalf of state governments over Facebook and Instagram addictions is scheduled to begin in California late next month.

A coalition of state attorneys general has asked a federal judge to consolidate 29 lawsuits over the consequences of social media addiction brought against Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, into a single unified case for trial.

Companies like Meta, ByteDance and Google face nearly 2,200 social media addiction lawsuits filed in courts nationwide, including claims brought by families, school districts and state governments, each raising similar allegations that the platforms are deliberately designed to maximize user engagement through data-driven algorithms that encourage compulsive use among children and teens.

While most claims come from individual families seeking compensation for harms such as anxiety, depression and suicidal ideation, school districts and state governments have also filed lawsuits seeking reimbursement for the rising costs of addressing a youth mental health crisis fueled by social media addiction. These expenses include counseling programs, crisis intervention efforts and expanded special education services.

Due to common issues of fact and law, all youth social media addiction lawsuits filed in federal court have been centralized as part of a multidistrict litigation (MDL) in the Northern District of California under U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers for pretrial proceedings and coordinated discovery.

In a December 12 letter brief (PDF), 29 state attorneys general asked Judge Rogers to unify all their claims against Meta specifically into one consolidated claim when it becomes their turn to go to trial.

“The 29 State AGs present a unified case: one single presentation of evidence that Meta engaged in nationwide misconduct to design its social media platforms in a manner that harmed the mental and physical health of children across the country, to illegally ensnare under-13 users onto its platforms, and to deceive the public of the true safety risks.”

– Letter brief by the state attorneys general regarding trial strategy

The letter indicates that the states always intended to pursue the litigation as a single claim, indicating Meta offers “the same addictive, harmful social-media services and features to children” nationwide. They note that the states plan to present unified evidence and the same expert witnesses that are not specific to the situation in any particular state.

The attorneys general noted that the trial and level of misconduct will result in proceedings “of significant scale” that will already be complex, pointing out that the states have already engaged in a great deal of pre-trial coordination.

According to the letter, Meta has proposed severing the litigation into separate claims, which the attorneys general say would lead to numerous separate, expensive and unnecessary trials.

Social Media Addiction Lawsuit Trials

As part of her stewardship over the litigation, Judge Rogers has scheduled the first teen social media addiction lawsuit bellwether trials to begin in the summer of 2026, which will involve claims by school districts that say they have had to pay for mental health treatment, tutoring and other expenses to address the social media addiction epidemic.

Before the federal trials begin, consolidation of claims filed at the state level is also occurring in California Superior Court under Judge Carolyn Kuhl. The first California state trial is scheduled to begin on January 27, 2026, involving claims by a plaintiff identified only as K.G.M.

While the results of any of these bellwether trials will not be binding on other claims, they will be closely watched to see how juries respond to the strength and weaknesses of arguments on both sides.

Following these early test trials, if the parties are unable to reach a settlement agreement, thousands of claims could be remanded back to their originating district for individual trial dates.

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