The attorneys general of 33 US states have jointly sued the Meta platform (formerly Facebook) and its Instagram subsidiary, alleging that the social media platform is addictive and harmful to the mental health of young people. These states include California and New York, among others.
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In the complaint filed on Tuesday, the attorneys general said Meta’s platform continually misleads the public, masks the dangers of its platform, and intentionally induces children and teens to become addicted to social media. “Meta uses powerful and unprecedented technology to attract, mobilize, and ultimately trap young people and teens, motivated by profit,” the complaint states.
The states say studies have shown that children’s use of social media on Meta platforms is strongly associated with “depression, anxiety, insomnia, disruption of education and daily life, and many other negative outcomes.”
Meta said it was “disappointed” by the lawsuit. Instead of actively working with companies in the industry to establish clear, age-appropriate standards for a wide range of apps for teens, the attorneys general chose to go down this path,” the company said.
Eight other U.S. states and Washington, D.C. filed similar lawsuits against Meta’s platform on Tuesday, bringing the total number of authorities taking action to 42.
Meta’s shares fell 0.6% on the Nasdaq.
The complaint, filed in 33 states, states that Meta’s platform has worked hard to ensure that young people spend as much time as possible on social media, even though the company knows that they are vulnerable to endorsements such as “likes” of its content by other users. “Meta failed to disclose how its algorithms capitalize on young users’ dopamine response and create an addictive cycle of engagement,” the complaint said. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter associated with pleasure.
The suit also alleges that the Meta platform has refused to take responsibility and even drew a line in the sand last year with the death of a 14-year-old girl who committed suicide in the U.K. She was exposed to content about suicide and self-harm on Instagram. A coroner rejected a Meta executive’s claim that such content was “safe” for children, while a coroner found that the girl was likely addicted to harmful content that normalized the depression she felt before taking her own life.
The states also accused the Meta platform of trying to expand its harmful practices into the virtual reality realm, including its Horizon Worlds platform and WhatsApp and Messenger apps.
By suing, authorities are attempting to close a loophole that prevented the U.S. Congress from passing a new child online protection law, despite years of discussion.
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