Mass. court advances Meta suit

Massachusetts’ highest court ruled on April 10 that Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell’s lawsuit accusing Meta of addicting young Instagram users can keep going. (mass.gov) The Supreme Judicial Court said Meta was not entitled to dismissal under Section 230 at this stage because Massachusetts is challenging the company’s own product design and alleged misstatements, not just posts created by users. (mass.gov) Campbell sued Meta and Instagram in Suffolk Superior Court in October 2023 under the state consumer-protection law and public-nuisance law. Her office said Meta used features including infinite scroll, autoplay, frequent notifications and “fear of missing out” prompts to keep teenagers on the app longer. (mass.gov) The complaint also says Meta misled the public about Instagram’s safety, including its efforts to protect young users and its age-verification systems for children under 13. Reuters reported that those allegations were part of the claims the court allowed to proceed. (cnbc.com) Section 230 is a 1996 federal law that usually protects internet companies from liability for content supplied by other users. The Massachusetts court said the state’s claims, as pleaded, focus on Meta’s own conduct in designing and running Instagram, which is why the case survived this early appeal. (courthousenews.com) The ruling is one of the clearest state-court tests so far of whether Section 230 can block youth-addiction cases against social media companies. CNBC, citing the opinion, said it was the first time a state high court had addressed whether the law bars claims that a platform knowingly hooked young users. (cnbc.com) The justices did not decide whether Meta actually broke Massachusetts law. The opinion left those questions, and any later constitutional defenses, for the lower court as the case moves forward. (reason.com) Meta has denied the allegations and said it has taken extensive steps to protect teens and younger users on its platforms. The company had argued that Section 230 barred the Massachusetts case because the alleged harms depended on third-party content appearing on Instagram. (cnbc.com) The Massachusetts case is one piece of a broader legal campaign that began in 2023, when Campbell joined a bipartisan coalition of 42 attorneys general suing Meta in federal and state courts. Two other recent verdicts also added pressure: a Los Angeles jury found Meta and Google negligent in a youth-harm case on March 25, and a New Mexico jury imposed $375 million in civil penalties against Meta a day earlier. (mass.gov; cnbc.com) For now, the Massachusetts decision does one concrete thing: it keeps Campbell’s case alive long enough for the state to try to prove that Instagram’s design choices, not just its users’ posts, caused harm to children. (boston.com)