Judge refuses to dismiss state AGs' Meta child addiction …

U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers has allowed a lawsuit from 34 state attorneys general against Meta (Facebook and Instagram) to proceed, claiming the platforms are designed to be addictive to children. The lawsuit alleges that Meta concealed the harm caused by its platforms, violating the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). The judge ruled that certain deceptive and unfair practices could be pursued legally, while some claims were limited by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which shields online platforms from liability for user-generated content. Meta expressed mixed reactions to the ruling, acknowledging some claims were narrowed but contesting the overall decision. The ruling is part of a broader legal trend addressing the impact of social media on minors.

Return to Homepage

Top Stories:

Federal judge refuses to toss state AGs' lawsuit accusing Meta of addicting children hero image

Judge refuses to dismiss state AGs' Meta child addiction lawsuit

Key takeawaysPowered by Yahoo Scout. Yahoo is using AI to generate key points from this article. This means the info may not always match what’s in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience.

Meta failed to dismiss a lawsuit brought by state attorneys general accusing it of designing Facebook and Instagram to be addictive to children and concealing harm from the public.
U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers allowed claims rooted in deception, unfairness, and violations of the federal Children's Online Privacy Protection Act to proceed against Meta.
The judge awarded summary judgment to the states on the question of COPPA's notice and parental consent requirements, finding that Meta had failed to satisfy them.

Meta lost its bid to dismiss a lawsuit brought by dozens of state attorneys general accusing it of designing Facebook and Instagram to be addictive to children and knowingly concealing the resulting harm from the public.

Claims rooted in deception, unfairness, and violations of the federal Children's Online Privacy Protection Act were all allowed to proceed after U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, based in Oakland, California, turned down Meta's motion to dismiss them late Monday, according to Reuters. On the separate question of COPPA's notice and parental consent requirements, the judge awarded summary judgment to the states after concluding the record left no dispute that Meta had failed to satisfy them.

The ruling addressed claims brought by 34 states, according to Courthouse News Service. The 102-page opinion deemed a substantial portion of the attorneys general's consumer protection theories viable, with the judge writing that the way Meta designed, built, and rolled out specific product features could reasonably be found to constitute unfair or unconscionable conduct under the relevant legal standards.

Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which shields online platforms from liability for user-generated content, did limit some of the states' claims, according to Courthouse News Service. Among the features shielded by Section 230 were infinite scroll and autoplay functions, disappearing content, notification systems designed to interrupt users, and the way the platforms quantify and surface likes. By contrast, the judge left unprotected a separate category of features — including filters that alter users' appearances, tools for capping time on the platform, and Instagram's functionality for maintaining multiple accounts — reasoning that none of them touch on how third-party content is published.

The failure-to-warn theory survived as well, with the judge pointing to unsettled and rapidly evolving case law across jurisdictions as reason to keep those claims alive rather than cut them off at the pleading stage.

Meta's response was mixed: a company spokesperson acknowledged that the opinion helpfully narrowed certain claims in line with earlier Section 230 precedent, but said the company takes issue with the ruling as a whole. "We've developed numerous tools to support parents and teens," the spokesperson said, pointing to a new Teen Accounts feature for Instagram.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a statement that "Meta needs to be held accountable for the very real harm it has inflicted on children here in California and across the country."

The ruling is part of a large multi-district proceeding in Oakland that consolidates hundreds of lawsuits — from individual plaintiffs, school districts, local governments, and state attorneys general — targeting Facebook, Instagram, and other platforms over their effects on minors. Meta has separately lost bids for a new trial in Los Angeles Superior Court, where a jury found the company liable for harm caused by Instagram's design to a user who alleged she developed an addiction as a minor, and a New Mexico jury returned a $375 million verdict against Meta for exposing children to sexual exploitation and concealing platform dangers from users.

View comments

About Our Ads

Read Original at Yahoo →