Social Media Addiction Lawsuit Against Meta
Author: Anuoluwapo Olabode
The trial against Meta currently underway in Oakland, California, is one in a long series of lawsuits against Meta. The Jury trial began on Tuesday, August 20th, and could be one of the corporation's biggest challenges to date. The lawsuit charges Meta of deliberately implementing addictive design features on their websites, Instagram, and Facebook to harvest data from minors, including those under the age of 13.
Outside the courtroom, a crowd of parents gathered whose children fell victim to online predators, suicide, eating disorders, blackmail, and deepfakes, etc. The jarring scene of grieving parents with photos of their children in hand was backdropped by a banner with over 335 names of children, the youngest victim being just 8 years of age. One young victim, Annalee, whose journal entry was read aloud to the press by her mother, Lori Schott, said, "Tonight has been one of the worst nights in a while. I was sitting on my bathroom floor telling myself how much I hate myself. No one will love me unless I look the part. I look at other girls' profiles, and it makes me feel worse. No one will love somebody as ugly and broken as me." Another victim's parent, Shannon Heacock, commented, “It’s a design choice, a company that builds its platform to maximize child engagement at the cost of the child's safety. They (Meta) know what they are doing.”
Assembly Member Josh Lowenthal of District 69 said, "I want to thank the parents, the survivors, the young people that are here standing together today. It takes some extraordinary courage to relive the unspeakable pain to the public eye, to turn grief into action … 80 miles from here in our state, we are on the doorstep of passing two of the most consequential laws in the country to change the relationship children have with social media. First, limit companies from deploying addictive features against kids under 16: infinite scroll, autoplay, recommended algorithms, notifications the very design choices were engineered to hook developing brains. Second, hold media platforms financially liable when they are found liable for the harms they cause our kids.”
On behalf of the state, Deputy Attorney General of the California Department of Justice, Megan O'Neill, began by sharing that neuroscience related to child development demonstrates that children are impressionable and vulnerable. Meta intentionally developed the UI of their social media platform over the years to target this vulnerability. O'Neill referred to this tactic as Meta's business model: Hook, Hold, Harvest, and Hide.
Paul Schmidt, one of Meta’s lawyers, claimed that youth under 13 bypass age restrictions by lying about their ages. According to Meta’s attorney, only 1 in 5 youth feel Instagram makes them feel bad, and believe users have controls, like turning off notifications and blocking accounts.
Artor Bejar, a former Facebook director of engineering for safety, testified against Meta, claiming Mark Zuckerberg did not prioritize safety despite warnings. "There was a little book they handed out titled 'Move fast and break things.' Safety and security was an afterthought," Bejar said. He highlighted another quote oft-cited at Meta: “Be quick and inherit the earth.” A father who cares about the safety of his children, Bejar was shocked to learn that his 14-year-old daughter was on the Meta platform and was receiving solicitations for sex and inappropriate photos sent by strangers. Bejar claimed Meta had internal research reports, including the “Bad Experiences and Encounters Framework (BEEF)" report, which found that 13 - 15 year old users reported having harmful experiences on the platform such as nudity, cyberbullying, and unwanted advances.
You can follow the Federal Trials where the state accuses Meta of purposely designing an addictive platform for young people with the HOPE Youth Coalition articles.
