Meta Youth Trial Turns Social Feeds Into a Product-Liability Test

Jury selection began on August 12, 2026, in federal court in Oakland for a Meta youth-harms trial involving claims that Facebook and Instagram damaged youth mental health and unlawfully collected data from children under 13. Court records had scheduled jury selection for August 12, with openings and evidence no earlier than August 18. The case matters beyond Meta because it frames algorithmic feeds as engineered control systems that states may try to regulate through consumer-protection, privacy, and product-safety logic.