On Tuesday local time, dozens of state attorneys general in the United States jointly sued Meta and its subsidiary Instagram, accusing their products of promoting a mental health crisis for children and adolescents. The support of state attorneys general from so many different political backgrounds indicates that Meta's business faces significant legal challenges. In the US stock market, Meta's stock price fell slightly by 0.5%.
On the same day, 33 states, including California and Illinois, jointly submitted a lawsuit to the California Federal Court. The states stated that Meta had repeatedly misled the public about the significant dangers of its platform and deliberately induced young children and adolescents to become addicted and forcibly use social media.
The complaint states: "Research has shown that young people who use Meta's social media platform can experience depression, anxiety, insomnia, interference with education and daily life, and many other negative consequences
The lawsuit also mentions that Meta utilizes its powerful and unprecedented technology to lure, attract, and ultimately deceive minors, with its motivation being to obtain profits. The lawsuit seeks various remedies, including significant civil penalties.
Subsequently, Meta responded that it has been working hard to ensure the cybersecurity of young people. We are disappointed that the inspectors have chosen this path instead of engaging in fruitful collaborations with companies across the industry, setting clear and age appropriate standards for many applications used by teenagers, "the company stated
The inspector general's attention to Meta largely stems from documents released in 2021, which show that Meta's data shows that Instagram, originally used as a photo sharing application, was addictive and worsened the physical image problems of some teenage girls.
The complaint states that Meta strives to ensure that young people spend as much time as possible on social media, even though it knows that teenagers' brains are easily influenced by other users' recognition of their shared content.
Meta also publicly denies that its social media poses certain risks. In 2020, Meta continued to intentionally design its products to manipulate the dopamine response of young users to maximize their time on the platform. Meta did not disclose that its algorithm was designed to utilize the dopamine response of young users and create an addictive participation cycle
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It is worth noting that although Meta publicly denies and downplays these harmful effects, according to internal research documents of the company, it knows that its product can harm young users and has conducted research on it, but Meta has chosen to keep it confidential.
The lawsuit also claims that Meta violated laws prohibiting the collection of data on children under the age of 13. Meta is attempting to extend what states call harmful practices to virtual reality, including Meta's Horizon Worlds platform and chat app WhatsApp Messenger.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta said, "Meta has been harming our children and adolescents, cultivating addiction, and increasing corporate profits
The Attorney General of New Hampshire and Washington D.C. have both stated that they have filed relevant lawsuits in local courts. It is expected that seven other states will file similar lawsuits on Tuesday, bringing the total number of states filing lawsuits to 42.