The Meta Snap trial moves into a courtroom in Los Angeles on Wednesday, October 28, 2026, as jury selection is expected to begin in a landmark case about the alleged harms of social media for young users. For the first time, Snap will face a jury over claims that its app was designed in an addictive and problematic way, alongside Meta, the company behind Instagram and Facebook. If no further settlements are reached, opening statements are set for November 4, and star witnesses including Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg, Instagram chief Adam Mosseri and Snap chief executive Evan Spiegel are expected to testify from mid-November.
The case arrives after a year of twists in the wider wave of lawsuits against social media companies, including a first bellwether verdict against Meta and YouTube, a string of settlements by TikTok, YouTube and Snap, and multibillion-dollar penalties and settlements against Meta in other cases. Whatever the Los Angeles jury decides, the trial will put the internal decisions of two of America's largest social media companies under public scrutiny, at a moment when regulators around the world are weighing how far to go in restricting apps for teenagers.
Jury selection is the first formal step in the new trial, which a California state judge consolidated from the separate cases brought by SJ and KDB. Thousands of lawsuits have been filed in recent years in local, state and federal courts across the country with various claims about alleged harms to children and teenagers caused by social media companies, according to the AFP reporting of the case. This Los Angeles trial is the latest — and, for Snap, the first — to reach a jury.
The plaintiffs' lawyers are expected to argue next month that their clients were exposed to "addictive and problematic" social media apps when they started using them at 13 and 15, according to court documents cited in the reporting. SJ, a teenager in Illinois, began to use Snapchat compulsively, her lawyers claim, and subsequently experienced mental health issues, an eating disorder and self-harm. KDB, now 18 and from Mississippi, similarly developed compulsive use of both Meta and Snap apps, leading to worsening mental and physical health, her lawyers claim. The companies deny the claims, and the allegations have not been tested before a jury in this case.
The shape of the trial has narrowed considerably before it even begins. TikTok and YouTube were previously named as defendants but both reached settlement agreements with SJ and KDB before the start of the trial, their lawyers said. Meta reached a settlement agreement with one of the plaintiffs, SJ, but not with KDB. That leaves KDB's claims against Meta and Snap as the live core of the case, unless further deals are struck before opening statements on November 4.
The cases against the social media companies have taken twists and turns, and the first of them went to trial earlier this year in Los Angeles. In that first so-called bellwether case, a jury found Meta and YouTube collectively liable for harming a young user known by the initials KGM, and ordered the tech companies to pay a combined $6 million penalty. Meta said at the time that it "respectfully disagree[d]" with the verdict. Snap and TikTok had settled with KGM ahead of that trial.
Months later, Snap, TikTok and YouTube settled another case that was set to go to trial in August. That plaintiff, known as RKC, then withdrew the remaining claims against Meta, allowing the Instagram and Facebook maker to avoid trial without a settlement. The pattern — settlements peeling defendants away as trial dates approach — has now repeated with SJ and KDB, leaving only Meta and Snap standing for the November trial.
Meta's wider legal year helps explain why the stakes are high. Earlier this month, a New Mexico judge ordered Meta to pay $25 billion in a case in which the company was found liable for deceiving users in the state about how their data was used, in a case related to the Cambridge Analytica scandal. A New Mexico jury had previously found the social media giant liable for harms to children, leading to a combined penalty of $942 million. In August, Meta agreed to pay more than $18 billion in penalties, in addition to making changes to Instagram and Facebook for teens, when it settled with 52 attorneys general several days into a trial held in California. Part of that settlement hinged on YouTube and TikTok making similar changes to their own products, such as limiting daily screen time.
As regulators around the world grapple with reining in, or even banning, social media use for teenagers, American lawsuits have focused on allegations of addictive design and deceptive practices by social media companies. The Los Angeles trial will test those allegations in front of a jury, with documents, design decisions and executive testimony at the centre of the argument.
The central question for the jury will be whether Meta's and Snap's products were designed in ways that caused foreseeable harm to young users, and whether the companies did enough to warn about or prevent that harm. The plaintiffs' case, as previewed in court documents, rests on compulsive use: features and design choices that, they argue, kept teenagers returning to the apps again and again, with consequences for their health. The companies' defence, as previewed in their public statements, is that the allegations misrepresent both the plaintiffs' experiences and how the products were designed.
Snap intends to argue that it is different from other apps like Meta's Instagram and Facebook because of Snapchat's focus on primarily being a messaging platform. "We believe the evidence will support that we have put our community first, and that these allegations fundamentally misrepresent the plaintiffs' experiences on Snapchat and how our platform was designed," a Snap spokesperson said in a statement. Meta has previously denied such claims. "We will not back away from defending ourselves against baseless lawsuits," Meta told AFP in July.
The testimony calendar gives the trial its public profile. Star witnesses are expected to testify beginning in mid-November, including Zuckerberg, Mosseri and Spiegel. Their appearances would put the chief executives of two companies, and the head of the world's most popular photo-sharing app, on the stand to answer questions about design choices made years ago, when the plaintiffs were teenagers.
Meta's position, repeated in July, is uncompromising: "We will not back away from defending ourselves against baseless lawsuits," the company told AFP. That line sets up a trial in which Meta is not seeking to minimise or settle its way out, at least for KDB's claims, after already settling with SJ.
Snap's statement strikes a different note, emphasising community and design. "We believe the evidence will support that we have put our community first, and that these allegations fundamentally misrepresent the plaintiffs' experiences on Snapchat and how our platform was designed," a Snap spokesperson said. The argument that Snapchat is primarily a messaging platform, rather than a feed-driven app, is likely to be central to Snap's defence: a messaging app, it will argue, is used differently from Instagram's endless scroll.
The plaintiffs' lawyers, for their part, have framed the case in the language of the court documents: their clients were exposed to "addictive and problematic" apps at 13 and 15, and the consequences — mental health issues, an eating disorder and self-harm for SJ, and worsening mental and physical health for KDB — followed from compulsive use. Those claims will now be tested against the companies' evidence about how the apps actually worked and what warnings and controls were in place.
The trial matters for three reasons. First, it is a bellwether in its own right. The earlier KGM verdict showed a jury is willing to find social media companies liable for harm to a young user, even if the $6 million penalty was modest by Big Tech standards. A second verdict, against two companies at once and with chief executives testifying, would strengthen the hand of the thousands of plaintiffs behind similar lawsuits still waiting in courts across the country.
Second, it matters for product design. The August settlement with 52 attorneys general already forced changes to Instagram and Facebook for teens, and hinged on YouTube and TikTok making similar changes such as limiting daily screen time. A jury verdict, rather than a negotiated settlement, could push companies further — or, if the companies win, slow the momentum for design regulation in the United States.
Third, it matters for parents, schools and teenagers themselves. The trial will air, in public, how apps that billions of people use every day were designed to hold attention, and what the companies knew about the effects on young users. Whatever the verdict, that evidence will shape the debate about age restrictions, screen-time limits and parental controls long after the Los Angeles jury has gone home.
Jury selection begins on Wednesday, October 28, in Los Angeles. If no additional settlements are reached, opening statements will follow on November 4, and the trial will move into witness testimony, with Zuckerberg, Mosseri and Spiegel expected from mid-November. Settlements remain possible at any point: the history of this litigation is one of defendants settling as trial dates approach, and both companies have shown a willingness to settle other cases, even while fighting this one.
Beyond Los Angeles, the wider litigation continues. Thousands of cases remain in local, state and federal courts, and regulators in the United States and abroad are still weighing restrictions on teen social media use. The outcome in Los Angeles — verdict, settlement or something in between — will be read closely by lawyers on both sides of every one of those cases.
For now, the immediate milestone is simple: a jury is being chosen, two of the most powerful companies in technology are defendants, and for the first time, Snap will have to defend its app design before a jury. The arguments begin on November 4.
What is the Meta Snap trial? It is a consolidated California trial in Los Angeles in which two young plaintiffs, known as SJ and KDB, allege that Meta's and Snap's apps were "addictive and problematic" and harmed their health after they began using them in their early teens.
When does the trial start? Jury selection is expected to begin on Wednesday, October 28, 2026, with opening statements scheduled for November 4 if no further settlements are reached.
Which companies are still defendants? Meta and Snap. TikTok and YouTube settled with both plaintiffs before trial, and Meta settled with SJ, leaving KDB's claims against Meta and Snap live.
Who is expected to testify? Star witnesses expected from mid-November include Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg, Instagram chief Adam Mosseri and Snap chief executive Evan Spiegel.
What happened in the earlier bellwether case? Earlier in 2026, a Los Angeles jury found Meta and YouTube collectively liable for harming a young user known as KGM and ordered a combined $6 million penalty; Snap and TikTok had settled with KGM ahead of that trial.
Related coverage on US News Pulse: Meta's $95 billion AI raise leads a $198 billion day of AI spending, Big Tech earnings test: Alphabet, Amazon and Apple face AI spending verdict, Anthropic IPO filing: Claude maker seeks Nasdaq listing as ANT in $2 trillion test.
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