Opening arguments begin Tuesday in Oakland federal court in a 2023 case brought by a coalition of 29 state attorneys general accusing Meta of designing Facebook and Instagram to foster addictive behavior among children and teenagers. California Attorney General Rob Bonta is co-leading the case, with lawyers from California, Colorado, New Jersey and Kentucky arguing it. The states allege violations of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act and state consumer-protection laws; Meta says the claims are unsubstantiated and the requested financial penalties are disproportionate. The states seek nationwide injunctions that could require Meta to delete personal data collected from children under 13, along with algorithms and models trained on that data, if COPPA violations are found. For state-law violations, they seek removal of features including infinite scroll, autoplay, ephemeral content, beauty filters and engagement-optimized algorithms. Meta’s attorneys have put potential damages as high as $1.4 trillion, while state lawyers told Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers that about $200 billion is more likely. The trial follows a New Mexico ruling requiring Meta to pay nearly $1 billion and make child-safety changes, which Meta plans to appeal. New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez said a California judgment could be far larger. Meta derives 98% of its revenue from online advertising and is using ad revenue to fund AI investment projected to cost as much as $145 billion this year.

Anthropic has filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration to challenge the designation of its operations as a 'supply chain risk.' The company seeks to reverse this classification, which could impact its business activities.

Anthropic will challenge the Pentagon's designation of the company as a supply-chain risk in court. This decision follows U.S. President Donald Trump's directive for federal agencies to cease collaboration with Anthropic.