Hook, hold, harvest and hide: Meta’s alleged strategy laid out in first week of landmark trial
A coalition of 29 states opened a landmark trial against Meta this week, alleging the company deliberately engineered its platforms to be addictive and violated laws designed to protect children's privacy. Prosecutors framed Meta's entire business model around four verbs: hook users in, keep them on the platform, collect their data, and conceal the harm.
Why this matters: This trial is about what Meta allegedly knew and chose to do anyway. If the states' framing holds up, this is not a story about unintended side effects. It is about a company that built compulsion into the product on purpose, aimed at kids, and then covered its tracks. That is a different kind of accountability than a data breach or a sloppy privacy policy. The harvest-and-hide argument puts intent at the center. That is hard for a company to explain away with an update to its terms of service.
Who should care: General readers · Privacy officers · Policy
This summary is AI-assisted and may contain errors. It is an original briefing to help you gauge significance quickly — not a reproduction of the source. Always read the linked original before relying on it. See our methodology.