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Posted on 07/09/2026 5:44:55 AM PDT by Red Badger
Mark Zuckerberg might think those Kylie Jenner-branded Meta smart glasses are cool, but you know what is really cool? Not having to pay California and three other states virtually the entire valuation of your company.
The Social Network script paraphrasing aside, that’s the position Meta’s multi-firm attorneys are taking in the multi-plaintiff suit over litigation the Instagram parent company and other social media platforms are facing in federal court. “A sanction of that size has no analog in the history of consumer protection enforcement,” Meta’s defense team(s) proclaimed in a deep-dive filing this week.
Taking a massive bite outta Meta’s bottom line, state attorneys general like California’s Rob Bonta (hello David Ellison, see you soon) and his colleagues in Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey allege the Zuckerberg outfit actively misleads consumers. To the quartet, those so-called deceptive data moves and more translates into “unfair or unconscionable trade practices.”
Practices that should force Meta to pay up to $1.4 trillion in damages if the verdict is in the states’ favor.
Yes, you read that right — $1.4 trillion. Just to put that in perspective: Meta’s full net worth is just over $1.5 trillion.
“The AGs ask this Court to make Meta pay over one trillion dollars,” the somewhat redacted filing from Meta lead firm Covington & Burling states.
“That figure is the construct of lawyers, assembled by mixing and matching data from disparate sources to manufacture the largest possible sum, and by counting the same individuals many times over,” the Ashley M. Simonsen signed document adds, mocking the math and asking Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers to toss most of the demands.
“The AGs cannot identify any UPA or COPPA case imposing penalties approaching that amount. Meta has not found any case, under any cause of action, where one defendant was ordered to pay over one trillion dollars—or any number remotely close to that staggering figure.”
As various local school boards settle with the tech giants in this latest social media case about to go before an Oakland jury next month, 29 states overall are still claiming that Meta, as well as Snap and TikTok, violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act via data collection practices.
If this all sounds a bit like the teen-centric trials in L.A. and New Mexico from earlier this year, it is because they are similar. In fact, challenging the rules of the digital road the tech lords have lucratively paved for themselves, the cases are but three of more than 2,000 such suits moving through a plethora of courts across the land against social media companies.
As they have in the L.A. and New Mexico cases it lost and is appealing, Meta insists its algorithm-driven products are safe and that responsibility for underage use lies with parents not corporations. The Silicon Valley-based company also takes a swing at state pols like Bonta in what is an increasingly partisan battlefield.
“The plaintiffs’ outlandish calculations have no basis in fact or law,” a Meta spokesperson told Deadline after the filings by their lawyers this week. “We’ll continue to defend ourselves against headline-seeking demands that are untethered from reality.”
For their part, Bonta’s office is turning the other cheek to Meta’s damages reaction.
“Our lawsuit alleges Meta has prioritized profits over the safety of kids and fueled the mental health crisis we see impacting a generation of American children,” a spokesperson for California’s top lawman told Deadline. “The California Department of Justice looks forward to holding Meta fully accountable at trial in August. Beyond this, we have no other updates at this time.”
In one update, Meta stock shed 2% Wednesday to close at $603.12. They have fallen nearly 9% in 2026 to date as investors assess its heavy spending on AI infrastructure and consumer products like a new line of smart glasses.
In the meantime, while no one is saying anything publicly, Bonta, New York’s Letitia James and a collection of other Blue State AGs are putting the final touches on an action on the $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery by Ellison’s Paramount Skydance. Delayed a few weeks, the potential suit aims to halt all the fast-tracked approvals the deal has already received from self-declared Ellison “good friend” Donald Trump and his administration.
Put on your shades, it’s about to get blinding out there.
Dade Hayes contributed to this report.
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If the AGs want to find out who is causing the brain damage to children they need only look in the mirror.
And some of us thought the $1.4bn judgment against Alex Jones was excessive.
And, of course, if these states prevail, all that there money goes back to all the consumers.
Except the “little” slice they need for expenses . . .
So, are these states suing as retaliation because Zuck ratted the dems out about the Hunter laptop thing?
They see a gigantic pile of money and they want it...................
Liberal states do everything they can to suck monies from companies and individuals that have income or assets in any other locations in the world.
They do the same to their own citizens.
Liberals always want the freest ride they can achieve.
social media is an absolute harm, not just to children but everyone.
It’s gonna get to the point where it’s just cheaper to “hire guys” to make sure that guys like Bonta have a spectacularly short career.
IF CALIF WINS & GETS $$$$$$$THEY WILL MANAGE TO”SPEND” IT ALL WITHIN A MONTH.
Fuckersperg and his whole empire needs to be taken down.
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