Facebook's parent company sued for making kids addicted to social media

The decision was made by Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in federal court in California on Tuesday.

Illustration photo: REUTERS/Dado Ruvic

Judge Rogers in Oakland denied Meta's request to dismiss allegations from two separate lawsuits filed last year. One involved more than 30 states, including California and New York, and the other was brought by Florida.

Ms. Rogers also rejected requests from Meta, TikTok owned by ByteDance, YouTube owned by Alphabet (Google's parent company) and Snapchat owned by Snap to dismiss other individual lawsuits from the plaintiffs.

The decision allows the states and other plaintiffs to continue to gather additional evidence and possibly even take the case to trial.

“Meta must be held accountable for the very real harm it has caused to children in California and across the country,” said California Attorney General Rob Bonta.

Lawyers for the individual plaintiffs called the decision “an important victory for young people across America who have been negatively impacted by addictive and harmful social media platforms.”

A Meta spokesperson said the company disagreed with the decision and insisted it has developed a number of support tools for parents and teens, including “Teen Accounts” on Instagram with more protections.

A Google spokesperson said the allegations were “completely untrue” and insisted that “providing young people with a safe, healthy experience has always been at the heart of what we do.”

The states are asking the court to issue an injunction against Meta's allegedly illegal business practices and to award financial damages.

Hundreds of lawsuits have been filed by various plaintiffs, accusing social networks of designing addictive algorithms that lead to anxiety, depression and body image issues in teens, while failing to warn about these risks.

Cao Phong (according to Reuters)

Source: https://www.congluan.vn/cong-ty-me-cua-facebook-bi-kien-vi-khien-tre-em-nghien-mang-xa-hoi-post317041.html