Attorneys general across the country are joining in a lawsuit against the social media company Meta, claiming its platforms are harmful to youth mental health and are unlawfully collecting data on children.
A coalition of 32 Attorneys General filed suit in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Californiawhile another nine filed in their own states alleging Meta knowingly designed features on subsidiary websites, including Instagram and Facebook, to addict children and teenagers.
Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, leading the coalition, said they are suing under the federal Child Online Privacy Protection Act, claiming Meta profited from the youth mental health crisis.
“We have to act. It is very clear that the decisions made by social media platforms like Meta are part of what is driving mental health harms, physical health harms and threats that we can’t ignore. These are threats we looked into starting in 2021. They are threats that we heard about through the actions of a whistleblower who released thousands of documents that pointed out that Meta knew what its platforms, Instagram, Facebook, were doing.”
Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell, a Democrat, filed suit in Suffolk Superior Court. In 2021 her office co-led the nationwide investigation that led to the release of documents that she says shows Meta knew how harmful its platforms are to young people.
“Meta has preyed on an entire generation of young people for profit. On its Instagram platform Meta secretly deployed design features and mechanisms that deliberately exploited young people’s still developing brains and adolescent vulnerabilities and, in many cases, rejected using feasible alternatives that they knew would mitigate harm to our young people. There is nothing wrong with looking to make a profit. But we allege that Meta’s unscrupulous and unconscionable conduct and its campaign of deception in order to pursue that profit has gone beyond what is legally permissible and has contributed to an ongoing mental health crisis among our children here in Massachusetts and of course across the country.”
Vermont’s Attorney General Charity Clark filed a lawsuit against Meta in Chittenden Superior Court. The Democrat says the state intends to hold the company accountable for the youth mental health crisis, deceptive practices and violations of the state’s Consumer Protection Act.
“In addition to causing compulsive use Instagram poses other serious mental health risks and that is with its content. Instagram exposes young people to content depicting violence, adult sexual activity, hate speech as well as content that promotes eating disorders or suicide and negative social comparison, which we know is one of the most common and harmful effects of Instagram use. And what I learned is that the algorithm is designed to show more of those negative social comparisons posts because they are more likely to engage the user and therefore earn more advertising revenue for Instagram.”
In the Northeast, New Hampshire also filed suit in state court. Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and New York joined the coalition in the federal court filing.
Meta says it’s disappointed by the legal action and says it shares the attorney generals’ “commitment to providing teens with safe, positive experiences online.”
