Meta, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook, is in its second week of a landmark federal trial in California over accusations that it deliberately designed its platforms to be addictive to young users, while potentially shielding the case from a full verdict: Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday that Meta and state attorneys general have held discussions about a possible mid-trial settlement.

The trial was brought by a coalition of 29 US states, which allege that Meta knowingly engineered its products to hook children and teenagers, fuelling anxiety, depression and, in some cases, suicide. Four of those states — California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey — have additionally accused Meta of misleading consumers about the safety of its platforms. All 29 states contend that Meta violated the federal Children's Online Privacy Protection Act by collecting personal data from users under 13 without parental consent, including using that data to train machine learning and artificial intelligence models. The states are seeking approximately $200 billion in penalties. A federal appeals court declined to halt the trial just days before jury selection began on 12 August.

Central to the proceedings this week was testimony from Adam Mosseri, who has led Instagram since 2018. Under questioning from state lawyers, Mosseri acknowledged that the company's