Opening statements began July 27, 2026, in a seven-week jury trial in Nashville Chancery Court, where the state of Tennessee is suing Meta over allegations that Instagram's design features cause psychological harm to teenagers. Chancellor Russell T. Perkins is presiding. Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti, whose office filed the lawsuit, was present in the courtroom for the first day of proceedings. The Guardian

Tennessee's attorney Tom Cartmell told the jury that Meta disregarded internal research about Instagram's impact on teenagers, including compulsive use leading to eating disorders, depression, and self-harm. Central to the state's opening was a 2017 internal Meta document that Cartmell displayed for the jury, in which product managers wrote that features like notifications and infinite scroll "are inherently at odds with well-being" and said the company needed to warn the public. The state is seeking financial penalties and a court order directing Instagram to modify harmful platform features.

Meta's attorney Kevin Huff countered that the internal documents show Meta is searching for problems on its platforms to improve them. Protecting teens online, Huff argued, is a shared responsibility rather than a burden falling solely on Meta.

The Tennessee case is one of 42 lawsuits brought against Meta by individual US states. It is also the latest in a series of youth harm trials working through courts across the country. In March 2026, a New Mexico jury found Meta liable for harming children and ordered the company to pay $375 million in civil penalties. New Mexico had sought $3.7 billion in penalties and court-ordered changes to Meta platforms. A separate trial over allegations that Meta and YouTube designed their apps to addict children began in Los Angeles in February 2026. Reuters

If the Tennessee jury finds Meta liable, the trial enters a second phase where the judge, not the jury, decides damages. That two-phase structure mirrors the New Mexico proceeding and gives the state a path to both monetary penalties and injunctive relief targeting specific product features.

The litigation landscape intensifies in August 2026, when the first federal trial against Meta, YouTube, TikTok, and Snap is slated to begin in Oakland, California. That case, brought by attorneys general from 29 states, carries extraordinary financial stakes: US states are seeking a combined $1.4 trillion in penalties, with amounts calculated based on individual state laws. Reuters

The broader context here is one of escalating legal and financial pressure on social media companies over platform design choices. The Tennessee trial, though narrower in scope than the August federal proceeding, tests the same core theory of liability: that engagement-maximizing features like infinite scroll and push notifications constitute defective or harmful design when deployed on products used by minors. The 2017 internal document Cartmell presented to the jury is particularly potent evidence because it uses Meta's own language to frame the features as antithetical to well-being, not merely incidental to it.

Meta's defense strategy, as previewed in opening statements, leans on a shared-responsibility argument and reframes internal research as proactive product stewardship. Whether that framing persuades a Tennessee jury will matter beyond Nashville. Forty-two state-level cases and a federal multidistrict trial are now in motion, and jury verdicts in early cases are building a factual and legal record that later courts and litigants will reference.

The trial is expected to run for seven weeks.