00:00Four states are demanding $1.4 trillion from Meta.
00:04That's almost the entire valuation of the company.
00:08So can a single lawsuit actually bankrupt
00:10one of the biggest companies on earth?
00:12Here's what's happening.
00:13If you don't know, Meta owns Facebook and Instagram,
00:15and right now the company is in a massive court battle.
00:18In a court filing from July 6th,
00:20Meta revealed the amount the states are seeking in damages,
00:23$1.4 trillion.
00:25Those states are California, Colorado,
00:27Kentucky, and New Jersey.
00:28Reuters reports the states accuse Meta of building its apps
00:31to deliberately hook young users,
00:34then hiding how unsafe those apps actually are.
00:37Meta, as a whole company, is worth about $1.5 trillion.
00:40So the states want almost everything the company has.
00:44At a hearing in June, the states explained their math.
00:46They estimated how many kids were affected,
00:49counted each kid as one violation,
00:51and multiplied it by the fine their state laws allow.
00:54Do that across millions of kids,
00:56and the total passes the GDP of most countries on the planet.
00:59A Meta spokesperson called the number outlandish,
01:02and said nothing this big has ever happened in a case like this.
01:05And Zuckerberg's defense goes even further.
01:08Meta points to his testimony in Congress,
01:10and argues the company never lied,
01:12because social media addiction isn't even an official medical condition.
01:16So they argue you can't accuse them of hiding something that doesn't officially exist.
01:20The states, however, are not buying it.
01:22Their position is that if millions of kids were really harmed,
01:25then the penalty should be enormous.
01:27But for now, nobody's paying anything.
01:29A judge refused to throw the case out, so it heads to trial in August.
01:33But what do you think?
01:34Is $1.4 trillion real justice for millions of families,
01:38or a number so crazy it proves the whole thing is just a stunt?
01:41Drop your take in the comments, and follow us here for more.
Comments