Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser is leading a nationwide push to sue social media giant Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, over allegations of intentionally addicting youth to its platforms.
Weiser is joined by 41 other attorneys general in elevating the issue to federal and state courts, arguing that Meta “knowingly designed and deployed harmful features” on its social media platforms that hook young users while assuaging the public about their safety.
“Just like Big Tobacco and vaping companies have done in years past, Meta chose to maximize its profits at the expense of public health, specifically harming the health of the youngest among us,” Weiser said in an announcement.
He and other officials said children’s and teenagers’ physical and mental health are under siege as a direct result of Meta’s business practices, with the technology company collecting their data. “It knew that young people who shouldn’t have been on the platform were on the platform, were being marketed to,” Weiser said in a Tuesday news conference.
“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 Tracy Clayton said in an email. “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.”
The actions include a federal complaint backed by 33 states, a separate federal lawsuit filed by Florida and state-level lawsuits in Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont and Washington, D.C. The attorneys general argue that Meta is violating state consumer protection laws and the federal Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act.
The latter “has a very clear line,” Weiser said. “Companies are not allowed to market to, to collect data on kids under 13 without their parents being put on notice.”
“We’re here because Meta saw an untapped, valuable audience in young kids,” he added.
The bulk of the collective federal complaint involves confidential information not yet released publicly, but it also relies on previous testimony by former Meta employees about habit-forming features like “infinite scroll and near-constant alerts.”
“We want to see action, we want to see responsible behavior,” Weiser said. “We feel there is a path forward.”
He didn’t, however, anticipate the case resolving quickly.
The attorneys general launched a bipartisan investigation into Meta in 2021, with Weiser and Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti at its helm. “We’ve had, effectively, every single state apart of this multi-state investigation,” Weiser said.
The coalition is also in the process of investigating TikTok on similar matters.
“With TikTok, we are still litigating,” Skrmetti said in the news conference.
The complaints follow lawsuits filed by hundreds of U.S. school districts, including Denver Public Schools, Jeffco Public Schools and the Aspen School District, alleging that Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat are partly responsible for students’ mental health problems.
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