{"id":171783,"date":"2023-10-25T03:40:26","date_gmt":"2023-10-25T08:40:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=171783"},"modified":"2023-10-25T03:40:57","modified_gmt":"2023-10-25T08:40:57","slug":"yost-other-ags-file-suit-against-meta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2023\/10\/25\/yost-other-ags-file-suit-against-meta\/","title":{"rendered":"Yost, other AGs file suit against Meta"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

VW independent staff\/submitted information<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

COLUMBUS — Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost and 32 of his colleagues have filed a federal lawsuit against Meta, alleging that the social-media technology giant designed and deployed harmful features for Facebook and Instagram to addict young users to its platforms and enhance its bottom line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, claims that Meta, instead of working to mitigate the damage inflicted by its social-media platforms, publicly concealed the severity of the psychological harm they cause, including addiction to the platforms, which could, and in some cases did, result in physical harm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In related complaints filed today in state courts, eight other attorneys general made similar allegations. Florida is filing its own federal lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida. The federal and state lawsuits stem from a bipartisan investigation of Meta.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Dave Yost<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGiven that children, when they\u2019re on these platforms, become vulnerable to cyberbullying and online predators, Meta has added insult to injury, further injuring our children,\u201d Yost said. \u201cI trust that the parents within Meta itself might reconsider these practices, but, until then, initiating lawsuits should compel the company to change its ways.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The federal lawsuit asserts that Meta violated state consumer protection laws by assuring the public that the platforms are safe and suitable for young users. Yet the company\u2019s practices harmed and continue to harm the mental and physical health of teenagers and pre-teens, the suit maintains, fueling what the U.S. Surgeon General has called a \u201cyouth mental health crisis,\u201d which has prompted suicides, devastated families and damaged a generation of young people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The complaint further alleges that Meta violated federal law \u2013 specifically, the Children\u2019s Online Privacy Protection Act \u2013 when the company, aware that users younger than 13 were actively on its platforms, collected data from those users without parental consent. Meta targeted these youngest users after identifying them as a \u201cvaluable, but untapped\u201d base, as reported in a 2021 Wall Street Journal article.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although much of the lawsuit relies on confidential material not yet available to the public, some publicly available sources \u2013 including disclosures from former Meta employees \u2013 detail how the company deliberately sought to gain financially by addicting teens and tweens to its platforms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meta\u2019s platform algorithms, the lawsuit says, push users into descending \u201crabbit holes,\u201d with the objective of keeping users on the platform for long periods. Meta also allegedly used features such as infinite scroll and near-constant alerts in a concerted effort to hold young users\u2019 attention. Such manipulative tactics entice teens and tweens to continually return to the platforms. Instead of disclosing the harm and making meaningful changes to minimize it, Meta publicly advertised their platforms as safe for young users.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The attorneys general also allege that the platforms served harmful content \u2013 including material associated with eating disorders, violence, negative self-perception and body-image issues, and bullying \u2013 to young users.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lawsuit seeks injunctive and monetary relief caused by Meta\u2019s platforms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joining Yost in the federal filing are the attorneys general of 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, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia and Wisconsin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Filing lawsuits in their respective state courts are the attorneys general of the District of Columbia, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah, and Vermont.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

VW independent staff\/submitted information COLUMBUS — Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost and 32 of his colleagues have filed a federal lawsuit against Meta, alleging that the social-media technology giant designed and deployed harmful features for Facebook and Instagram to addict young users to its platforms and enhance its bottom line. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-171783","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-02 09:00:43","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171783","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=171783"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171783\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":171807,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171783\/revisions\/171807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=171783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=171783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=171783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}