New York Attorney General Letitia James and her Connecticut counterpart William Tong are part of a bipartisan coalition of 32 attorneys general who filed a federal lawsuit against Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ:META), accusing the social media company of harming young people’s mental health by deploying Facebook and Instagram features intentionally designed to create addiction to the platforms.
The lawsuit cited Meta’s algorithms that are designed to recommend content to keep users on the platform longer and encourage compulsive use, as well as the “likes” and social comparison features and “incessant alerts” designed to induce young users to return to Meta’s platforms constantly, even while at school and throughout the night. The attorneys general also claimed Meta deployed visual filter features that known to promote young users’ body dysmorphia and content-presentation formats including “infinite scroll” designed to discourage disengagement by young users.
The lawsuit, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, accused the Mark Zuckerberg-helmed company of routinely collecting data on children under 13 without parental awareness or consent while falsely claiming that its social media platforms are safe. The attorneys general assert that Meta’s business practices violate the federal Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act and state consumer protection laws – seven states and the District of Columbia filed separate lawsuits in their own state courts.
“Kids and teenagers are suffering from record levels of poor mental health and social media companies like Meta are to blame,” said James. “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. Social media companies, including Meta, have contributed to a national youth mental health crisis and they must be held accountable. I am proud to join my fellow attorneys general to stop Meta’s harmful tactics and keep children safe online.”
“Meta saw American kids as a ‘valuable and untapped market’—nameless factors on a bottom line to maximize profits,” said Tong. “They enabled kids to access addictive platforms riddled with harmful messages built to override self-control that one developer likened to ‘behavioral cocaine.’ Their abusive practices have unleashed a youth mental health catastrophe. Attorneys general today are blanketing the country in coordinated federal and state court actions to hold Meta accountable for their blatant violations of consumer protection and child privacy laws.”
Tong added that similar investigations against other social media companies, most notably TikTok, are “active and ongoing and we will not hesitate to use the full weight of our enforcement authority to force this broken industry to respect the law and the safety and wellbeing of our children.”
