Meta Staff Ordered ‘Attorney/Client Privilege’ Hats Amid Child Safety Disclosure Battle

Meta’s legal team is pushing to keep certain evidence under wraps, citing attorney-client privilege in the ongoing lawsuits concerning the safety and mental health of teens. The lawyers representing the plaintiffs argued this week that the privilege claim is being applied too broadly. They referenced a recently unsealed document revealing that the team responsible for launching Instagram’s Teen Accounts in 2024 ordered baseball caps labeled “a/c priv.”

The plaintiffs contend that the Project Nido swag reflects a “culture of privilege abuse at Meta,” aimed at shielding internal research on teen harm from public scrutiny. This issue was highlighted by Mark Zuckerberg after internal data regarding Instagram’s impact leaked in 2021.

US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers previously criticized some of Meta’s privilege claims as “entirely inappropriate” in a ruling last month. She noted an instance where Meta’s lawyers attempted to frame a discussion about a slide deck and the decision to publish certain data as a matter of legal advice. However, based on trial testimony, she concluded that their hesitance to publish was more about business interests and preventing leaks.

In April 2025, Meta unclassified around 65,000 documents that had been previously withheld or redacted, but the plaintiffs argue this came too late for effective use in depositions. Now, Meta has requested additional time until the end of the year to reassess other privilege redactions, while the plaintiffs’ lawyers are advocating for a neutral party to oversee this review, with costs covered by Meta.