Jury selection began Wednesday in the 29-state attorneys general trial against Meta in Oakland federal court (MDL 3047). The docket details the wire coverage buries: it's an advisory jury, Meta's immunity defenses already lost, and the $1.4 trillion figure is Meta's own framing.

Jury selection began Wednesday in an Oakland federal courtroom in the largest test yet of whether Meta designed Facebook and Instagram to hook children. The case — the state attorneys general track of MDL 3047, In re: Social Media Adolescent Addiction/Personal Injury Products Liability Litigation, before U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers — is fronted by four lead states, California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey, out of a coalition of 29. NBC Bay Area first reported the calendar; opening statements are set for Aug. 18, per California Attorney General Rob Bonta's office.

One detail the "trial begins" framing buries: it's an advisory jury, reported at eight members. Gonzalez Rogers, not the jurors, renders the binding verdict — she can accept, reject or modify their findings. So the theater of jury selection sits atop what is, in substance, a bench trial.

The immunity fights that usually decide these cases are already over, and Meta lost them. The Ninth Circuit held Aug. 11 that Section 230 is a defense to be tested at trial, not a shield from suit; Gonzalez Rogers denied Meta's motion to dismiss the deception, unfair-business-practice and COPPA claims in late June, and granted the states partial summary judgment that Meta failed to obtain adequate parental consent. The suit targets design — infinite scroll, notifications, algorithmic feeds — not user content, which is what kept it alive.

The number Meta wants in the record: the company says the states seek up to $1.4 trillion in penalties, a sum it notes approaches its own roughly $1.5 trillion market value. Treat that as Meta's framing, not a demand the court has blessed.

This is the federal bellwether the state-court cases have been rehearsing — a New Mexico judge ordered Meta to pay into a $567 million youth-harm fund just last week. Mark Zuckerberg and Instagram head Adam Mosseri are expected to testify. A verdict isn't expected until around October — and, given the advisory jury, whatever it says, Gonzalez Rogers has the last word.