Meta staff ordered ‘attorney/client privilege’ hats amid child safety fight

In the ongoing litigation against Meta, the company has argued that certain evidence should stay out of public view because it is protected by attorney-client privilege. The lawsuits concern alleged harm to the safety and mental health of teenagers. This week, lawyers suing the company said that protection has been stretched far too broadly.

As a vivid illustration, they point to a recently unsealed document. The team preparing the 2024 launch of Instagram's Teen Accounts placed an order for baseball caps bearing a terse slogan: “a/c priv” — shorthand for attorney/client privilege.

A ‘culture of privilege abuse’

The plaintiffs argue that the swag for Project Nido — an internal name for the Teen Accounts team — is part of a “culture of privilege abuse at Meta.” The aim, they say, is to keep the company's internal research on teen harm away from the public. Mark Zuckerberg himself discussed the matter after internal data on Instagram's effects leaked in 2021.

US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers already called some of Meta's redactions “entirely inappropriate” last month. She cited an example in which the company's lawyers tried to recast a discussion about a slide deck and whether to publish certain data as a discussion of legal advice. Based on testimony, she concluded the reluctance to publish was more of a business decision aimed at preventing leaks.

A fight over the review

In April 2025, Meta de-designated roughly 65,000 previously withheld or redacted documents — after discovery had closed. The plaintiffs say that came too late for them to use the material in depositions.

Now the company is asking for time through the end of the year to re-review its other privilege redactions. The plaintiffs' lawyers counter that a neutral party should lead the review instead — paid for by Meta.

Source: The Verge