By Mike Swift ( August 14, 2026, 00:47 GMT | Insight) -- A federal judge in California gave a green light for Arturo Bejar, a former Meta Platforms engineering director turned child safety advocate, to testify in the high-stakes trial on child privacy and addictive design claims brought by 29 states led by California, Colorado, New Jersey and Kentucky. Bejar has been a "star witness" for the plaintiffs in three addictive design trials against Meta. The states also told a federal judge in Oakland, California that a more likely scenario for financial damages against Meta, if its found liable at trial, would be $200 billion — not the $1.4 trillion Meta has said the states are seeking. The 29 states going to trial against Meta Platforms next week will be able to call Arturo Bejar, a former Meta director of engineering, to testify in the addictive design trial, a federal judge said Thursday. But Bejar’s deletion of Signal messages will get more scrutiny. ...
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