State of Tennessee v. Meta Platforms, Inc. and Instagram, LLC is a civil enforcement action brought by Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti in the Chancery Court for Davidson County in Nashville, alleging that Meta designed Instagram to promote compulsive use among children and teenagers and deliberately misled the public about the platform's safety, in violation of the Tennessee Consumer Protection Act. Jury selection in the seven-week trial began on July 20, 2026 (Source: jurist.org; thedailyrecord.com).
Infobox
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Plaintiff | State of Tennessee (Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti) |
| Defendants | Meta Platforms, Inc.; Instagram, LLC |
| Court | Chancery Court for Davidson County, Tennessee (Nashville) |
| Filed | October 2023 |
| Claims | Tennessee Consumer Protection Act (deceptive and unfair practices) |
| Relief sought | Civil penalties up to $1,000 per violation; injunctive changes to Instagram features |
| Status | Active — jury trial began July 20, 2026 (last checked July 22, 2026) |
Background
The suit was filed in October 2023 as part of the wave of state attorney-general actions against Meta over alleged harms to young users. Tennessee proceeded in its own state court rather than joining the multistate federal action (Source: jurist.org). The complaint is published by the Tennessee Attorney General's office (Source: tn.gov).
Claims
The state alleges Meta violated the Tennessee Consumer Protection Act by failing to disclose internal research documenting Instagram's harm to teenagers while continuing to offer features without warning users. The complaint targets autoplay, Instagram Reels, push notifications, and designs that cause content to disappear after a limited period, alleging these features encourage compulsive use and contribute to depression, anxiety, sleep disruption, and other mental-health harms among young users. It further alleges that CEO Mark Zuckerberg was repeatedly warned by employees about research showing Instagram negatively affected young users' mental health and declined to fund efforts to reduce those impacts (Source: jurist.org).
Meta denies the allegations. Among its defenses, the company argues that Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act shields it from liability for third-party content; a company spokesperson said Meta has "spent a decade building safe, age-appropriate defaults for teens alongside simple tools for parents to set the right boundaries for their family" (Source: jurist.org).
Trial structure and current status
Jury selection began July 20, 2026, opening a trial scheduled to run about seven weeks. The trial is bifurcated: the jury first decides whether Meta violated the Tennessee Consumer Protection Act; if it finds liability, a second phase before the judge weighs monetary penalties — up to $1,000 per violation — and potential court-ordered changes to Instagram's features (Source: jurist.org; thedailyrecord.com).
Related proceedings
The Tennessee trial is the second state trial against Meta over alleged harms to young users. In March 2026, a New Mexico jury imposed $375 million in civil penalties after finding Meta misled consumers about the safety of its platforms and endangered children; a judge is separately weighing New Mexico's request for additional monetary relief and platform changes (Source: jurist.org).
In the parallel federal proceeding in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California before Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, a trial set for August 18, 2026 will address federal children's-privacy claims brought by 29 states and consumer-protection claims brought by California, Colorado, Kentucky, and New Jersey; Meta has said the states are seeking up to $1.4 trillion in penalties (Source: jurist.org; foxbusiness.com).
Relationships
- litigates: Meta AI — defendant
- related: Garcia v. Character Technologies, Inc. — youth-harm design-liability theory applied to an AI chatbot service
- related: Character.AI Litigation (umbrella) — broader youth-safety litigation wave against conversational AI platforms
- related: AI Mental Health and Psychological Harm — concept-level frame for design features and adolescent mental-health claims