Maryland is joining 32 other states in filing a 233-page complaint against Meta Platforms Inc., the company that owns Facebook and Instagram. The bi-partisan lawsuit, filed Tuesday morning in California, alleges that the company misled the public about the potentially harmful side effects of features on its social media platforms.
“Just like Big Tobacco did a generation ago, Meta has chosen to maximize its profits at the expense of public health, specifically the health of our children,” said Attorney General Anthony Brown, echoing other attorney generals across the country, as he addressed parents, staff and students gathered on the basketball court of the Hampstead Hill Academy in Patterson Park on Tuesday. He claimed that the applications’ use of infinite scrolling, constant notifications of “likes” and comments are created with the “express goal of hooking young users” in a way to “lure” them back online in a way that can cause long-term psychological harm.
The suit notes that the platforms operated by Meta have been, “associated with depression, anxiety, insomnia, interference with education and daily life, and many other negative outcomes.”
Meta has said in multiple statements to national news outlets that it shares “the attorneys general’s commitment to providing teens with safe, positive experiences online, and have already introduced over 30 tools to support teens and their families.”
While Facebook has declined in popularity among today’s youth, with one study finding just about 32% of teenagers use the platform, Instagram use hovers around 60% with a higher use among girls and Black youth. In 2016, an AP-NORC study found that Black teens are generally more likely to use social media than white teens.
A 2017 article in the American Journal of Psychiatry Residents’ Journal defines “Facebook addiction” as “ excessive, compulsive Facebook use for the purposes of mood alteration, with negative personal outcomes.”
Claims that platforms operated by Meta, which include Instagram and Facebook, are addictive aren’t new. In March of this year, unredacted portions of a federal lawsuit filed in Oakland showed employees at Meta were aware of potential harmful effects caused by their products. The filing cited one employee who wrote in 2021, “No one wakes up thinking they want to maximize the number of times they open Instagram that day… But that’s exactly what our product teams are trying to do.”
A number of public schools have also filed against the social media giant, alleging that it has contributed to a youth mental health crisis that is disruptive to education. One of those is Baltimore City Public Schools, who earlier this summer joined a class action suit against Meta and others including the operators of platforms like TikTok, Snapchat and YouTube. They allege that the social media companies have contributed to a mental health crisis that disrupts education. In that suit, lawyers wrote, “Social media platforms have recognized that if they hook their users when they are young, they will have lifelong users,” the lawsuit states. “As Instagram’s marketing strategy clarifies, ‘If we lose the teen foothold in the U.S. we lose the pipeline.’” City schools are looking for relief for damages caused by mental health problems in schools and funds that can be used for education on excessive social media use, reported The Baltimore Banner.
