WA sues Meta over 'youth mental health crisis that is costing lives'

Washington has joined a coalition of states challenging Meta, alleging it knowingly harmed the mental health of young users of its social media platforms, and targeted them with features designed to be addictive.

While Washington is part of a 33-state coalition that filed a lawsuit Tuesday — a bipartisan effort — a total of 42 states are filing lawsuits against Meta on similar grounds. The states aim to significantly change the way social media platforms operate, such as altering the "like" button and creating a new type of account strictly for younger users.

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"Virtually any parent who has a young person in their household, who has a phone, understands the challenges of how addictive these social media platforms can be," Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson said at a press event Tuesday morning.

"Parents are doing their best to protect their kids against this addiction, but they are up against a sophisticated social media giant that is exploiting its most addictive features for profit."

Meta owns and operates the social media platforms Facebook, Instagram, and now Threads. Ferguson's office notes that the lawsuit includes a range of confidential information that plaintiffs are not releasing to the public yet, however, it does make a handful of initial allegations, including:

• Meta has engaged in deceptive and unfair business practices.
• Meta targeted youth with the intention of getting them hooked on its social media platforms. The lawsuit points out the "like" button, push notification, and the endless scroll of content as such tactics.
• Meta knew children under the age of 13 were using its social media platforms and collected data from them without parental consent.
• Meta knew there were risks for younger users but downplayed them.
• Ferguson said Tuesday that these social media tactics have resulted in higher rates of anxiety, depression, eating disorders, low self-esteem, sleep disruptions, and attention deficit disorder.

Ferguson called the issue a "youth mental health crisis that is costing lives."

"Meta intentionally designed its social media platform to be more addictive to kids and young people," Ferguson said. "The company knew that targeting youth posed risks to their mental health. Meta did not just disregard those risks, the company exploited them to maximize their profits. Meta did all of this while publicly downplaying and misrepresenting the science of the risks to kids, contradicting their own claims that they put safety first. These tactics did not just harm kids and deceive the public, they also violated the law."

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The Attorney General's office states that such laws include consumer protection laws in Washington state, as well as the federal Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).

The lawsuit partially aims to force Meta to change some operations, such as altering or eliminating the "like" button, fewer push notifications, placing limits on youth content, improved safeguards to prevent underage users, and cutting down on multiple / fake accounts. It also proposes to create a type of social media account for users under a certain age that will operate with restrictions.

Ferguson argued that Meta has pushed back against efforts for the company to change its ways in the past, and that the lawsuit would not have emerged if the company had taken action itself.

The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. It is the result of an investigation into Meta that attorneys general began in 2021.

Aside from Washington, other states participating in the lawsuit include: Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.

In addition to the 33-state lawsuit, the District of Columbia, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah, and Vermont are filing lawsuits against Meta in their own states. Florida plans to file a federal lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida.