Dozens of US states Tuesday accused Facebook and Instagram owner Meta of profiting “from children’s pain,” damaging their mental health and misleading people about the safety of its platforms.
“In seeking to maximize its financial gains, Meta has repeatedly misled the public about the substantial dangers of its social media platforms,” argued a joint lawsuit filed in federal court in California.
In total more than 40 states are suing Meta, though some opted to file in local courts rather than join in the federal case.
Meta has exploited young users by creating a business model designed to maximize time they spend on the platform despite harm to their health, the legal filing argued.
“Kids and teenagers are suffering from record levels of poor mental health and social media companies like Meta are to blame,” said New York Attorney General Letitia James in a statement announcing the suit.
“Meta has profited from children’s pain by intentionally designing its platforms with manipulative features that make children addicted to their platforms while lowering their self-esteem.”
The suit accuses Meta of deceptive and unlawful conduct harming vulnerable youth for financial gain.
The suit urges the federal court to order Meta to stop manipulative tactics and pay hefty financial penalties along with restitution, according to James.
“Social media companies, including Meta, have contributed to a national youth mental health crisis and they must be held accountable,” James said.
Industry issue?
Meta said it was “disappointed” by the suit and that the states were not working with the array of social media companies to create age-appropriate standards.
Meta maintained that it has developed more than 30 tools in its apps to support teenage users, and made it easier for parents to “shape” online activity.
The Silicon Valley tech firm contended it is disappointing that attorneys general have singled out Meta instead of seeking industry-wide solutions given the popularity of rivals including TikTok, YouTube and Snap.
Social media can also be a place where young people struggling with other issues in their lives go to find support of community, Meta maintained.
The legal complaints resulted from a nationwide investigation announced in November, 2021, according to California attorney general Rob Bonta.
“Our bipartisan investigation has arrived at a solemn conclusion: Meta has been harming our children and teens, cultivating addiction to boost corporate profits,” Bonta said in a release.
“With today’s lawsuit, we are drawing the line.”
The investigation was launched after Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen leaked more than 20,000 pages of internal documents to the media that sparked criticism that the social media giant had put profit before the security of its users.
During testimony to American and European lawmakers in 2021, she insisted that Facebook failed to curtail toxic content and that the company cannot be trusted to change its ways.
Facebook later that year changed its name to Meta in a move critics suspected was intended to distance the company from its social networking controversies.
Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg defended the company at the time, saying “the argument that we deliberately push content that makes people angry for profit is deeply illogical.”
I recently had a discussion with my adult children—the parents of my grand children. I am a strong proponent of banning ALL social media to children under 18 years of age, at least in my province of Alberta.
My adult children are both university educated, and both in the health care field. So yes they are wayyy smarter than me in that sense. I am just a tradesman.
They brought good points—how would you ever police such a thing ? Drinking beer under age is a “visible thing” and there is laws against under age purchase—-Smoking is a visible thing and there are laws against under age purchase—there is no way the majority of people would stand for a law banning social media—- and so the list goes on.
I believe you can sue these big companies all you want and they can drag you through the courts for the next hundred years trying to convince you all that their content is not about profit and doesn’t harm any one.
WELL– I am pretty sure that these big companies have no control over the laws that can be enacted in ANY jurisdiction.
SOOOO—- save your money AND energy AND time, enact a law banning social media to children under 18 years of age (at least in Alberta). All the children under 18 that currently have a smart phone, replace them with a flip phone with no data. They can still call and text and still be “tracked”. THAT way, it IS visible to law enforcement, and, just like beer and cigarettes, there would be laws against under age purchase. The last thing would be —if the majority of parents truly wanted to help protect their children from these things, they would vote it in. Then I guess for the ones that don’t agree, they can let their children social media at home or wherever else they like, albeit, breaking the law.
ABOUT time people stopped talking and started acting.