Facebook, Instagram ‘The New Tobacco,’ Says Legal Expert
By Movieguide® Contributor
A lawsuit filed by forty-one states and the District of Columbia alleges that Meta knowingly targeted adolescents with products that were too addictive for their own good.
“Facebook is really like the new tobacco,” law professor Danny Karon told Fox News Digital. “It’s designed to addict kids, to hook kids, to bring them in, to make them have no choice but to glom onto this platform where Facebook lets out dose after dose, drip after drip of this almost electronic morphine to keep kids hooked.”
The majority of state attorneys general now want to keep the company accountable for its predatory practices and, more importantly, cause it to change its business model.
“Our bipartisan investigation has arrived at a solemn conclusion: Meta has been harming our children and teens, cultivating addiction to boost corporate profits,” said California Attorney General Rob Bonta.
California’s lawsuit against Meta, which was filed last week, claims that the company “misled its users and the public by boasting a low prevalence of harmful content,” while internally knowing its platform “cause[s] young users significant physical and mental harm.”
Even as Meta addresses these widespread lawsuits, the company claims that it is safe for children and works hard to keep its platforms appropriate for teens. While it may be true that the company keeps harmful content off of its sites, the attorneys general argue that the sites themselves are the problem.
“They want to get [Meta] to stop doing this stuff, change the platform, the algorithm, the addictive platform, all this sort of stuff that hooks and corrupts kids leading to suicide, depression, lost sleep, bad grades, disassociations with friends and family, all these awful things,” Karon explained.
“One, they want for [Meta] to stop and make changes. And two, they sued claims under every state’s consumer protection statute, and that’s a statute in every state that says, ‘You know what, you got to be sage and right as concerned consumers in our states, we’re going to fine you thousands and thousands of dollars per transaction, per click, per swipe, per user. It’s going to be massive,” he continued.
The lawsuits further seek to hold Meta accountable for its continued collection of private data on kids younger than 13, who are protected by the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).
“COPPA is the act that says, ‘Hey, listen, you can’t monitor and track kids’ personal information if they’re under 13, you can’t do it,” Karon said. “Well, [Meta] not only was doing it, but they were peddling to kids under 13 claiming they weren’t, yet they really were and when they were doing it, they’re gather all their data.”
The lawsuits hope to see changes on Meta’s platforms, such as the ability to turn off the curated algorithm – a feature already available in the EU due to legal pressure.
Movieguide® previously reported:
Forty-one states and the District of Columbia are suing Meta for building addictive features into its technology that harm children’s well-being.
“Our bipartisan investigation has arrived at a solemn conclusion: Meta has been harming our children and teens, cultivating addiction to boost corporate profits,” said California Attorney General Rob Bonta.
“We have a youth mental health crisis in the United States,” added Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser. “The young people were brought down rabbit holes.”
To hold Meta accountable for this alleged business practice, thirty-three states are filing a joint lawsuit against the company, while eight states and Washington D.C. are filing separate complaints in federal, state or local courts.
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