Billo CEO Donatas Smailys says that changes everything for creators.
A coalition of 29 US states is currently in federal court arguing that Meta built Facebook and Instagram to be addictive, and asking a judge to order the company to strip out some of the features that keep users scrolling.
The trial opened on 18 August in Oakland, California, before US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, with four states, California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey, presenting the case first. It’s expected to run six to eight weeks, with a decision likely around October.
The lawsuit centres on claims that Meta knowingly designed Instagram and Facebook features, including infinite scroll, autoplay, disappearing Stories, visible like counts and recommendation algorithms, to maximise the time children and teenagers spend on its platforms. The states are seeking both financial penalties and structural changes to how the platforms work, including eliminating infinite scroll and autoplay, restricting notifications, and changing how content gets recommended to younger users.
If the judge sides with the states and orders those changes, the impact may not stop at teen accounts. Legal analysis of the case notes that a structural injunction could apply to any version of Facebook or Instagram accessible in the United States, not just accounts belonging to minors. That’s the scenario Donatas Smailys, CEO of US creator-marketing platform Billo, is watching closely, and he says it would reshape the platforms most people use every day, not just youth safety settings.
“With changes required by the court, social media will have to change its form,” Smailys said. “Infinite scroll, autoplay, and disappearing Stories are important mechanisms that keep users engaged and coming back for more. Without them, we will go back in time to the version where people would open the app, catch up, reach the end, and leave.”
That shift, Smailys argues, cuts against the core of how platforms currently make money. “So the required changes will be the end of the bottomless version of social media,” he said. “It will be healthier for users, but a lot less profitable for the platforms.”
He expects platforms wouldn’t simply absorb that loss quietly. “One possibility is that platforms lean harder on ads to make up the difference, using them to prolong time on the app by showing them more frequently,” he said.
Meta disputes the states’ claims. A company spokesperson has called the allegations unsubstantiated and said the penalties being sought, which the states have suggested could reach into the trillions of dollars, are vastly disproportionate. Meta points to existing teen safety tools, including optional screen time controls, as evidence it has already responded to concerns about youth wellbeing on its platforms.
For the creator economy that has grown up around Instagram and Facebook’s current design, Smailys sees the stakes differently to how platforms might frame them. Much of what makes a creator go viral today relies on algorithm-driven discovery, the kind of recommendation engine central to the states’ case.
“If there’s no bottomless scroll, virality as luck will fade, and the value will move toward owned audiences and real communities,” Smailys said. “The go viral overnight path will be much more difficult, and the creators who’ve built actual trust with an audience become more valuable.”
That would mark a meaningful shift in how the creator economy operates, rewarding accumulated trust and direct audience relationships over the algorithmic luck that currently helps new creators break through. “This means the creator economy will change and go back in time together with the social media platforms,” Smailys said.
Nothing has been decided yet. The trial is ongoing, and Judge Gonzalez Rogers won’t rule until testimony concludes, likely in the coming weeks. But for businesses that rely on Instagram and Facebook for reach, whether through paid ads, organic content or creator partnerships, the outcome could change the mechanics of how audiences are built and reached, regardless of which side of the courtroom wins.
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