Unpacking the legal strategies from the first day in court

Lily Jamali

North America Technology Correspondent, reporting from court

We are starting to get a sense of what the respective legal strategies of the states and Meta will look like.

During her opening statement, California deputy Attorney General Megan O’Neill tried to draw a contrast between Meta executives’ statements reassuring the public on safety, and what their internal research showed about just how widespread problems were.

She’ll be out to hammer home that split screen to jurors over the course of this trial.

By contrast, Meta lawyer Paul Schmidt worked to paint the company as an honest broker which has been transparent about potential issues, and has used internal research for tools that help protect young users. There will be internal documents showed to jurors during this trial, including emails among company employees.

Some of the language "will be loose," Schmidt warned, in a bid to soften the impact that those emails will have on how jurors view the case.