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The Social Media Lawsuits claim that Meta Platforms, Inc. (Meta) and its social media platforms, Facebook and Instagram, make billions of dollars each year by exploiting its most vulnerable users—children. The lawsuits claim the same against ByteDance (TikTok), Google (YouTube) and Snap (Snapchat).
Plaintiffs in these lawsuits allege these companies knowingly built social media platforms using algorithms specifically designed to lure young people into a destructive addiction. Excessive exposure to the platforms has led kids and young adults to develop eating disorders, self-harm, and suicidal ideation.
If you or your minor child has suffered injuries resulting from harmfully addictive social media platforms, please contact our office today for a free case review: (800) 277-1193 or complete the Case Evaluation Form below.
A federal judge upheld several claims by school districts against social media companies, allowing them to proceed in the lawsuit over student mental health impacts from social media. The judge ruled that the companies could be held responsible for contributing to mental health issues, which increase costs for schools. Some claims were dismissed, but the court found the companies may have failed to warn users about addiction risks. For more details, visit Levin Papantonio’s press release.
On October 22, more than 40 U.S. states filed lawsuits against Meta, accusing the company of harming youth mental health through features on Instagram and Facebook that allegedly keep teens addicted. The states claim Meta has designed its platforms with algorithms that can exploit and worsen self-esteem issues, especially among teenage girls. This move follows reports showing Meta knew about the potential harms these platforms could cause to young users but continued promoting addictive engagement tactics. Meta says it has made some safety changes but disagrees with the states’ approach in handling youth safety concerns online.
By the end of the month, 557 cases were pending in the social media addiction MDL.
A study published on June 4, 2024, in PLOS Mental Health shows that too much social media is bad for teenagers. It makes it hard for them to focus on important things like homework and spending time with family. The research found that teens addicted to the internet have brain problems, especially in areas needed for attention and memory.
The study looked at brain scans from 12 different studies done between 2013 and 2022, with a few hundred teens aged 10 to 19. The authors say that internet addiction has become a big worry over the last ten years.
This month, in a New York Times op-ed, the U.S. Surgeon General argued that social media platforms should display warning labels akin to those found on cigarette packaging. These labels would caution users that social media use is linked to “significant mental health harms for adolescents.”
The total number of pending cases in the social media class action reached 455 by May 1, 2024.
A study published this month in Archives of Disease in Childhood looked at how much time teenage girls spend on their smartphones and social media. It didn’t just measure the time but also checked for signs of social media addiction. The researchers wanted to see if social media use and addiction were linked to anxiety, tiredness, loneliness, and negative feelings about body image, health, and mood.
The study found that anxiety and other mental health issues are big problems for teens in wealthy countries. Since 2013, anxiety has increased a lot, especially among girls. These mental health issues are now a major reason young adults miss work in some countries. Anxiety rates among teenage girls kept rising during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The number of pending cases in the social media addiction class action MDL continues to rise. As of April 1, 2024, the number had reached 439 pending cases.
During a hearing in San Francisco, U.S. Magistrate Judge Peter H. Kang talked about concerns raised by the plaintiffs’ lawyers. They were upset because key executives were not included in the initial list of witnesses for the social media MDL. The plaintiffs’ lawyers were especially critical of not including well-known executives like Mark Zuckerberg and Evan Spiegel.
Judge Kang emphasized the need for timely and complete disclosures. He warned against delaying or hiding important information. He also told both sides not to add new witnesses at the last minute, explaining that this could affect their testimony.
As of February 2, 2024, the number of current pending cases in the Social Media Addiction MDL has risen to 399. Six new cases were added in January 2024.
On November 14, 2023, in its Order Granting in Part and Denying in Part Defendants’ Motions to Dismiss, the Court found that Section 230 and the First Amendment do not bar plaintiffs’ negligence per se claim.
On April 14, 2023, Plaintiffs filed the Amended Master Complaint in the Social Media Addiction MDL.
On December 15, 2022, in Case Management Order 3, the Court issued the following deadlines in the social media addiction lawsuits:
Parties agreed to a Direct Filing Order, meaning plaintiffs can file their complaints directly in the MDL court, enabling them to get around the delays that accompany filing in their home jurisdiction and then transferring the case to the MDL.
On November 10, 2022, the U.S. District Court Northern District of California issued Case Management Order No. 1, appointing Leadership for Plainitffs. Levin Papantonio Rafferty Attorney Emmie Paulos was appointed as a member of the Plaintiffs Steering Committee for the Social Media Adolescent Addiction/Personal Injury Products Liability Litigation (MDL No. 3047).
On October 6, 2022, the Judicial Panel on Multistrict Litigation (JPML) entered its Transfer Order to centralize social media addiction personal injury lawsuits in the Northern District of California to facilitate the fair and efficient management of this legal matter (IN RE: SOCIAL MEDIA ADOLESCENT ADDICTION/PERSONAL INJURY PRODUCTS LIABILITY LITIGATION MDL No. 3047).
These cases revolve around common factual inquiries concerning accusations that the defendants’ social media platforms are flawed due to their intention to prolong user screen time, potentially fostering addictive habits among teenagers. Plaintiffs assert that the defendants were aware of this issue but neglected to caution the public about the harmful effects their platforms could have on minors.
The JPML assigned this complex litigation to Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers—”an experienced transferee judge who presides over a pending action.”
Our lawyers are investigating cases on behalf of kids, parents, and young adults who:
If you or your underage child has experienced injuries due to the harmful, addictive nature of social media platforms, we urge you to reach out to our office promptly for a free case assessment. You can call us at (800) 277-1193 or fill out the Case Evaluation Form provided below.
Since 1955, we have represented individuals who suffer harm from giant corporations like Meta. You will see our firm’s attorneys listed in The National Trial Lawyers Hall of Fame and the Best Lawyers in America. We also launched Mass Torts Made Perfect, an annual conference that attracts more than 1,500 attorneys who gather to learn from our lawyers how we successfully handle these complex cases.
On June 7, 2022, attorneys for Jessica Guerrero (on behalf of minor plaintiff S.G.) filed a lawsuit against Defendants Meta Platforms, Inc., Facebook Holdings, LLC, Facebook Operations, LLC, Facebook Payments, Inc., Facebook Technologies, LLC, Instagram, LLC, and Siculus, Inc., in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware (Guerrero v. Meta Platforms, Inc., et al).
The minor, S.G., is a 17-year-old girl who began engaging in “addictive and problematic use” of the Meta social media platforms shortly after registering as a user on these platforms. S.G.’s alleged addiction-related injuries include:
Nine out of ten teens use Facebook and/or Instagram, spending an average of three hours daily on the platforms. This exposure wields long-lasting negative impacts on teens’ still-developing brains and puts their mental health at risk.
The social media platforms’ user interfaces sort content to display at the top that is irresistible to young users. This content builds a “false reality” related to beauty, success, and wealth, causing teens to experience negative physical or social comparison. The platforms’ algorithms also promote harmful “controversial, disturbing, negative, and/or emotionally charged” content, the Guerrero lawsuit alleges.
According to the lawsuit, research has shown that “…social media facilitates cyberbullying, contributes to obesity and eating disorders, instigates sleep deprivation to achieve around-the-clock platform engagement, encourages children to negatively compare themselves to others and develop a broad discontentment for life, and has been connected to depression, anxiety, self-harm, and ultimately suicide ideation, suicide attempts, and completed suicide.”
Despite knowing of these detrimental effects, Meta constructs its business models around maximizing user engagement, affecting an egregious breach of the public trust.
Advertising on Meta social media platforms generated $69.7 billion for the company in 2019. These revenues are made possible through the exploitation of users. Meta collects and analyzes data on its users so advertisers can conduct micro-target advertising. Because more screen time yields more data and more money for Meta, the company deploys complex algorithms and artificial intelligence “to exploit human psychology,” the lawsuit alleges.
On October 4, 2021, former Facebook employee Frances Haugen appeared before the U.S. Senate to testify that Facebook leadership makes choices that harm children. Haugen stated that during her time at Facebook, decision-makers “repeatedly encountered conflicts between its own profits and our safety” and “consistently resolved those conflicts in favor of its own profits.
The whistleblower underscored that by cherry-picking what information billions of users encounter, Meta, can and does control people’s “deepest thoughts, feelings, and behaviors” and is effectively “shaping their perception of reality.”
Besides cranking up the volume on existing, violence-inducing extremism, division, and polarization, Haugen said that the Facebook machine optimizes profits by cultivating self-harm and self-hate, with vulnerable groups, like teenage girls being the most likely victims. According to Haugen, the social media company’s internal research has repeatedly confirmed these consequences.
In short, “Facebook became a $1 trillion company by paying for its profits with our safety, including the safety of our children,” Haugen said.
The Plaintiff in the Guerrero case argues the following:
Design Defect
Meta’s defective design of its social media products is not safe for users and is particularly harmful to minors. It is technologically and economically feasible for the company to adjust this design to lower the harm to users.
Failure to Warn
The Defendants failed to adequately warn minor users and their parents of the mental, physical, and emotional dangers of using Meta social media platforms.
Manufacturing Defect
Facebook and Instagram developers deviated from the platforms’ design, presenting a risk of serious injury or death, and causing the platforms to perform less safely than intended by their original design.
Negligence
Meta knew or should have known that its social media products harm a significant percentage of its minor users, and yet the company did not redesign its products to reduce the dangers of its platforms.
Meta prioritized profit over safety by implementing a business model based on product features designed to increase the frequency and duration of users’ engagement, despite knowing of their addictive nature and the significant harm to teens and other users.
Fraud
The Defendants marketed and promoted the social media products as being safe, despite knowing of the risks these products posed to users’ mental and physical health. The Defendants concealed this information from the public.
Meta’s research shows that Facebook’s and Instagram’s design, marketing, advertising, and promotion produce multiple harmful effects, including:
Rather than warn users of these potential harms, the Defendants refined their platforms to increase addiction and exposure to these harms.
The amounts that claimants can receive in Meta Social Media verdicts or settlements depend on a wide range of factors, including the type and extent of their injuries. Generally, this type of action could involve several types of recoverable damages, including (but not limited to):
Levin Papantonio attorneys will work to recover the maximum financial compensation for losses stemming from Meta’s and other defective social media platforms’ designs and marketing practices.
If you or your minor child have been harmed by the addictive features of social media platforms, don’t hesitate to get in touch with our office for a no-cost review of your case. Contact us today at (800) 277-1193 or fill out the Case Evaluation Form provided for your convenience.
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