CHARLESTON — A bipartisan group of 33 state attorneys general have sued Meta alleging the company knowingly designed and deployed harmful features on Instagram and its other social media platforms that purposefully addict children and teens.
In their federal lawsuit filed October 24 in California that includes West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, the AGs also say Meta falsely assured the public these features are safe and suitable for young users. In parallel complaints filed in state courts the same day, seven states and the District of Columbia made similar allegations.
“If these allegations are proven true in a court of law, Meta needs to be held accountable for the immense harm they inflicted on our youth," Morrisey said. “It’s unspeakable that a company can be as reckless as knowing and ignoring the potential harm of those applications in exchange for larger profit margins.”
Morrisey
The attorneys general claim Meta’s business practices violate state consumer protection laws and the federal Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). The AGs say these practices have harmed and continue to harm the physical and mental health of children and teens and have fueled what the U.S. Surgeon General has deemed a “youth mental health crisis” which has ended lives, devastated families, and damaged the potential of a generation of young people.
The AGs say Meta knew of the harmful impact of its platforms, including Facebook and Instagram, on young people.
But instead of taking steps to mitigate these harms, they say Meta misled the public about the harms associated with use of its platform, concealing the extent of the psychological and health harms suffered by young users addicted to use of its platforms. The complaint further alleges that Meta knew that young users, including those under 13, were active on the platforms, and knowingly collected data from these users without parental consent. It targeted these young users noting, as reported in a 2021 Wall Street Journal article, that such a user base was “valuable, but untapped.”
Meta issued a statement in response to the lawsuits.
“We share the attorneys general’s commitment to providing teens with safe, positive experiences online, and have already introduced over 30 tools to support teens and their families,” Meta spokesperson Andy Stone said. “We’re disappointed that instead of working productively with companies across the industry to create clear, age-appropriate standards for the many apps teens use, the attorneys general have chosen this path.”
Much of the AG’s complaint relies on confidential material that is not yet available to the public, but publicly available sources including those previously released by former Meta employees show Meta profited by purposely making its platforms addictive to children and teens. Its platform algorithms push users into descending “rabbit holes” in an effort to maximize engagement. Features such as infinite scroll and near-constant alerts were created with the express goal of hooking young users.
These manipulative tactics continually lure children and teens back onto the platform, according to the complaint. As Aza Raskin, the original developer of the infinite scroll concept, noted to the BBC about the feature's addictive qualities: If you don't give your brain time to catch up with your impulses ...you just keep scrolling.”
The AGs say Meta knew these addictive features harmed young people’s physical and mental health, including undermining their ability to get adequate sleep, but did not disclose the harm nor did they make meaningful changes to minimize the harm. Instead, they claimed their platforms were safe for young users.
These lawsuits are the result of a bipartisan, nationwide investigation. All the attorneys general in the country have worked together since 2021 to investigate Meta for providing and promoting its social media platforms to children and young adults while use is associated with physical and mental health harms. While some states have pursued litigation in state court and others in collective federal action, the attorneys general will continue to work together as the litigation continues.
Morrisey joined the federal lawsuit with Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin.
Florida is filing its own federal lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida.
Filing lawsuits in their own state courts are the District of Columbia, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah and Vermont.
In 2020, 48 states and territories filed an antitrust lawsuit against Meta as did the Federal Trade Commission.