As Meta’s addiction trial opens in Oakland, the documentary featuring Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen sets its release for the month the verdict is due.
LOS ANGELES, CA, UNITED STATES, August 18, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — Meta is on trial again, and Mark Zuckerberg is expected to take the stand. In a federal courtroom in Oakland, a coalition of state attorneys general has opened its case over claims the company engineered Facebook and Instagram to be addictive to children, a seven-week trial with a decision to follow in October. That same month, the film that tells the story behind the trial arrives: Your Attention Please, which premiered in the Documentary Spotlight section at SXSW 2026, will be available to rent or own on October 6, 2026. A preorder is live now on Apple TV.
The film connects the chapters of a story now reaching its climax. Frances Haugen exposed what Meta knew. Tristan Harris warned what it would cost. New Mexico proved it in court, with judgments totaling nearly $1 billion. And now the company faces damages Meta has estimated could reach $1.4 trillion, nearly its entire market cap.
Your Attention Please follows the families carrying the emotional toll of these products, and the whistleblowers, parents, and young people who chose to fight back.
Directed by Sara Robin and co-created by Jack LeMay, the film features sit-down interviews with Frances Haugen, the former Facebook product manager whose disclosures reshaped the global debate over platform accountability; Dr. Vivek Murthy, the former U.S. Surgeon General; Tristan Harris, co-founder of the Center for Humane Technology; Sherry Turkle of MIT; and Cal Newport, author of Deep Work.
It follows Kristin Bride, founder of the Carson J. Bride Effect, who has testified before Congress following the death of her son, Carson, from social media harms; Trisha Prabhu, founder of ReThink, an anti-cyberbullying technology she invented at 13; and the founders of The Offline Club, the phone-free movement that has drawn thousands to leave their devices at the door.
The reckoning spans every venue. A Los Angeles jury found Meta and Google liable for addictive design earlier this year, and thousands of federal suits by families, school districts, and states are cleared to proceed. The Kids Online Safety Act has again advanced in the Senate with bipartisan support. New York became the first state to restrict addictive algorithmic features for minors under the SAFE for Kids Act, effective 2027. England’s phone-free schools guidance took statutory force this summer, and Australia’s world-first ban on accounts for under-16s has led to the removal of nearly five million accounts.
Your Attention Please argues that platform harms were engineered rather than incidental, and that what was engineered can be designed differently.
This fall, the film will travel to New Mexico for a special screening presented in partnership with state leaders, with full details to be announced in the coming weeks.
“New Mexico didn’t wait for Washington to protect our kids. Our AG took Big Tech to court, and I’m proud to be a leader in the fight to get phones out of our classrooms. This film tells the story of that fight, and we’re bringing it home to New Mexico because the work isn’t finished.”
— Sen. Antonio “Moe” Maestas (D-Albuquerque)
“For years, people have been telling me ‘I need to get off my phone.’ Parents worry about their children’s technology use. And powerful companies are profiting from engineered addiction. The question is, what do we do about this? Your Attention Please shows the human cost of the Attention Economy, but more importantly, the film gives us examples of what we can do to start fixing the situation.”
— Sara Robin, Director
“As AI begins to transform the world, we can’t afford to repeat the mistakes of social media. We were told social media’s harms were the price of progress. They weren’t — they were the predictable outcome of bad incentives. And when people can’t see how a system works, the companies running it win by default. This film makes the system visible, and it arrives just as parents, courts, and governments are ready to act.”
— Tristan Harris, Co-Founder, Center for Humane Technology
Your Attention Please runs 96 minutes.
Preorder available now on Apple TV: https://tv.apple.com/us/movie/your-attention-please/umc.cmc.4ld7f9g9oxkbl4mytroucdohz
Watch the trailer: https://youtu.be/fFto77Y_Z1Q
EPK Assets: https://www.yourattentionplz.com/press
About the Film — www.yourattentionplz.com
Alysse Houliston
Assemble Collective
alysse@assemble-collective.com
Your Attention Please | Official Trailer
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