Meta faces youth lawsuit
A Massachusetts court ruled that Meta must face a lawsuit alleging Instagram was knowingly designed to addict and harm children, framing the claim around product design rather than only content or privacy. (thehindu.com)
Massachusetts’ highest court ruled on April 10 that Meta must keep fighting a state lawsuit alleging Instagram was designed to hook children. (mass.gov) The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court said Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act did not block the case at this stage because the state’s claims target Meta’s own product design and business conduct, not just posts from users. (mass.gov) The suit was filed by Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell in Suffolk Superior Court on October 24, 2023, and accuses Meta of unfair and deceptive practices and public nuisance. (mass.gov) The complaint says Instagram features such as push notifications, “likes,” and endless scrolling were built to exploit teenagers’ fear of missing out and keep them on the app longer. (cnbc.com) Justice Dalila Argaez Wendlandt wrote for a unanimous court that Section 230 protects platforms from claims based on harm flowing from user-generated content, but not from claims about the company’s own design choices. (mass.gov) That draws a line courts have been wrestling with for years: whether social media companies are being sued for what users say, or for how the companies built the systems that deliver it. The Massachusetts ruling squarely places this case in the second category. (mass.gov; cnbc.com) The decision arrived as pressure on Meta was already rising in other courts. On March 25, a Los Angeles jury found Meta and Alphabet’s Google negligent in a case brought by a woman who said she became addicted to social media as a child, and on April 9 a New Mexico jury found Meta owed $375 million in civil penalties in a separate state case. (cnbc.com) Reuters reported that at least nine state attorneys general have pursued similar state-court cases since 2023, while 34 states are also pressing related claims against Meta in federal court. (usnews.com; cnbc.com) Meta has denied the allegations and said it takes extensive steps to protect teens and young users on its platforms. The company had argued that federal law bars claims that would treat it as the publisher of third-party content. (cnbc.com; mass.gov) The case now returns to the trial court, where Massachusetts will try to prove that Instagram’s design, not just what appeared on it, caused harm to children. (mass.gov)
