Authorities in more than 40 states, including New Jersey, are suing Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta Inc., accusing the social media giant of fueling a national youth mental health crisis with features designed to addict adolescents and children.
New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin said the lawsuit aims to once and for all hold Meta and its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, accountable for deceptive and manipulative practices on Instagram and Facebook that they knew were harmful to young people.
They know how damaging their platforms are to our children and teens, Platkin told NJ Advance Media in an interview Tuesday. They know that. And yet, they deliberately targeted them in a way that violated state and federal laws.
In a statement, Meta said it was disappointed by the lawsuit and has already introduced more than 30 tools to support teens and their families.
Social media use is pervasive among adolescents in the United States, with up to 95% of young people ages 13 to 17 having some online presence, according to the Pew Research Center.
Experts say social media also exposes children to harmful content, including violent and sexual images, and intensifies the harms of bullying at a crucial stage of their development. U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy said the situation constitutes a mental health crisis among young people.
In response, state and federal authorities are increasingly examining whether algorithms and behind-the-scenes decisions by social media companies are making the problem worse. The tech companies that run the platforms insist they are doing all they can.
But attorneys general in a majority of states argue in court that tech companies have profoundly altered the psychological and social realities of a generation of young Americans.
The sweeping 233-page complaint unveiled Tuesday not only accuses Meta of being indifferent to the dangers, but also of actively seeking out young users, collecting data on children without their parents’ consent, in violation of federal law.
Meta leveraged powerful and unprecedented technologies to attract, engage and ultimately entrap young people and adolescents, the complaint states. His motivation is profit, and in seeking to maximize his financial gains, Meta has repeatedly misled the public about the substantial dangers of his social media platforms.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in California, alleges that Metas’ practices violate the federal Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act in addition to state-level consumer protection laws such as the Act on New Jersey Consumer Fraud.
It was filed by the attorneys general of 33 states and Washington, DC. Eight other states have filed similar lawsuits in state courts, according to the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office.
The suit follows an investigation co-led by authorities in New Jersey and several other states governed by both Democrats and Republicans. This followed claims by a whistleblower in 2021 that the company had ignored warning bells about the dangers of its products for children and adolescents, particularly young girls.
Meta said in its statement that the company shares with attorneys general its commitment to providing safe and positive online experiences for teens and is disappointed that instead of working productively with industry companies to create Clear, age-appropriate standards of many teen apps. usage, the attorneys general have chosen this path.
Platkin said Tuesday that the social media company has shown no interest in cooperating with law enforcement. He said New Jersey authorities spent about two years and thousands of hours investigating how the company treated underage users, concluding that the company deliberately targeted teenagers and children.
Remember, their business model relies on people staying engaged on their platform for long periods of time, and so they have used tactics to get kids to spend longer periods of time on their platform, knowing the damage that it would harm their mental health, the attorney general said. said.
Know the impact this will have on suicidal thoughts, body image issues, depression, anxiety. All of this is known to the company, and yet it has told the public that the opposite is true.
Facebook and Instagram aren’t the only social media apps facing increased scrutiny from state regulators. Authorities last year disclosed a similar multistate investigation into the social video app TikTok to investigate similar allegations that it inappropriately targeted young users.
This investigation is ongoing.
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SP Sullivan can be contacted at ssullivan@njadvancemedia.com.
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