Meta Sued Over Youth Addiction to Social Media

Meta Platforms Inc.'s logo is seen on a smartphone in an illustration picture taken on Oct. 28, 2021. Dado Ruvic/Illustration/Reuters

The San Mateo County Board of Education is suing Facebook’s parent company, Meta, claiming that CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s company has contributed to the mental health crisis among youths by intentionally designing its social media platform to be manipulative and addictive.

The Board of Education added Meta to a complaint it filed on March 13 in the U.S. District Court in San Francisco against a string of other social media giants, including Google, TikTok owner Bytedance, and Snap Inc.

Meta’s headquarters are in Menlo Park, California, a city at the eastern edge of San Mateo County.

The lawsuit (pdf) states that the nation’s children, adolescents, and teenagers are facing what is perhaps the “most serious mental health crisis” ever.

“Powerful corporations who wield unmatched, highly concentrated technology in pursuit of profit are knowingly creating this unprecedented mental health crisis,” the plaintiffs wrote.

“YouTube, Snap, TikTok, Meta, and their related companies have carefully cultivated the crisis, which is a feature—not a bug—of their social media products,” they wrote.

“Even with only a small glimpse into what the YouTube, Meta, TikTok, and Snap companies know about this crisis, the public can now fairly conclude that the social media defendants’ conduct was no accident, but rather that defendants acted knowingly, deliberately, and intentionally,” they added.

A person watches on a smartphone Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg unveil the META logo in Los Angeles, Calif., on Oct. 28, 2021. Chris Delmas/AFP via Getty Images

‘Meta Unambiguously Targets Teenagers’

With regards to Meta, which also owns Instagram and WhatsApp, plaintiffs claim that the company has “expended significant resources to attract youth, teens, and preteens to its platform in an effort to maximize revenue and advertisement profits” through various design features and products that appeal to them.

“Meta unambiguously targets teenagers. In 2018, Instagram committed nearly its entire $390 million annual marketing budget toward teens,” the plaintiffs wrote.

The lawsuit goes on to claim that Meta’s social media platforms are “optimized to exploit the neurochemical reward pathways of users,” and that due to children’s increased desire for “social development, affirmation, and approval from others,” they are led to a “bottomless, endless cycle of feed strolling, liking, posting, commenting, and reciprocating.”

It also claims that Meta’s use of complex algorithms, artificial intelligence, and machine learning promotes “habit-forming” patterns among youths, leading them to excessive use of the platforms.

The plaintiffs cite a Harvard University study that showed social media platforms such as Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram produce the same neural circuitry that is caused by gambling and recreational drugs.

“Studies have shown that the constant stream of retweets, likes, and shares from these sites cause the brain’s reward area to trigger the same kind of chemical reaction seen with drugs like cocaine,” the study states. “In fact, neuroscientists have compared social media interaction to a syringe of dopamine being injected straight into the system.”

In addition, the lawsuit cites former Meta employee turned whistleblower, Frances Haugen, who in 2021 leaked documents to The Wall Street Journal showing that Meta was aware as early as 2019 that Instagram had a “toxic” impact on the self-esteem of young girls.

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew prepares to testify before the House Energy and Commerce Committee in the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill, on March 23, 2023. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

TikTok Congressional Hearing

Those documents stated that internal research conducted by Meta, then Facebook, showed that Instagram caused body image issues to worsen for at least one-third of teenage girls on the platform. At the time, Haugen accused Facebook of repeatedly putting profit before doing “what was good for the public.”

However, Zuckerberg responded to her claims in a statement at the time noting that the company cares “deeply about issues like safety, well-being, and mental health,” and had employed more people dedicated to fighting harmful content on the platforms than “any other company in our space.”

The San Mateo County Board of Education’s lawsuit accuses social media companies of being a public nuisance, of negligence, gross negligence, conspiracy, and unfair competition.

Meta states (pdf) on its official website that it provides multiple tools for both children and parents to ensure they can enjoy a safe experience when using their platforms, including age-verification tools, limiting ad-targeting options for teens, restricting advertising topics for youths, and “take a break” reminders on Instagram.

The Epoch Times has contacted a Meta spokesperson for comment.

The lawsuit against Meta comes amid growing concerns among those in the Biden administration over the national security concerns posed by Chinese-owned TikTok.

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew appeared before a hearing of the House Energy and Commerce Committee for the first time ever on March 23 to discuss concerns regarding the app’s privacy and data, as well as its impact on children.