CT joins multi-state suit against owner of ‘behavior cocaine’ platforms Instagram, Facebook - Eyewitness News 3

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HARTFORD, CT (WFSB) - Connecticut has joined a multi-state lawsuit targeting Meta, the company that owns the social media platforms Instagram and Facebook.

Attorney General William Tong announced the suit on Tuesday, and said the company has caused harm to youth mental health.

Tong said Connecticut joined 42 attorneys general from across the country.

They claimed Meta knowingly designed and deployed harmful features on Instagram and its other social media platforms that purposefully addicted children and teens. At the same time, Meta falsely assured the public that the features were safe and suitable for young users.

“Meta saw American kids as a ‘valuable and untapped market’—nameless factors on a bottom line to maximize profits,” Tong said. “They enabled kids to access addictive platforms riddled with harmful messages built to override self-control that one developer likened to ‘behavioral cocaine.’ Their abusive practices have unleashed a youth mental health catastrophe. Attorneys general today are blanketing the country in coordinated federal and state court actions to hold Meta accountable for their blatant violations of consumer protection and child privacy laws. Meta’s actions are egregious, but we know they are not the only bad actor in social media. Other investigations—including into TikTok—are active and ongoing and we will not hesitate to use the full weight of our enforcement authority to force this broken industry to respect the law and the safety and wellbeing of our children.”

The attorneys general said that Meta’s business practices violate state consumer protection laws and the federal Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). They argued that the practices have harmed and continue to harm the physical and mental health of children and teens and have fueled what the U.S. Surgeon General has deemed a “youth mental health crisis” which has ended lives, devastated families, and damaged the potential of a generation of young people.

“Businesses have a duty to minimize the harm their product may cause, and to disclose when their product may have harmful effects, particularly on children,” said Department of Consumer Protection commissioner Bryan Cafferelli. “Our priority is to protect public health and safety, and I support [Tong] in joining this action to bring about change in Meta’s business practices.”

The federal complaint, joined by Connecticut and 32 other states and filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, claimed that Meta knew of the harmful impact of its platforms, including Facebook and Instagram, on young people. Instead of taking steps to mitigate these harms, it misled the public about the harms associated with use of its platform, concealing the extent of the psychological and health harms suffered by young users addicted to use of its platforms. The complaint further claimed that Meta knew that young users, including those under 13, were active on the platforms, and knowingly collected data from the users without parental consent.

The entire complaint can be read here.

While much of the complaint relied on confidential material that is not yet available to the public, Tong said publicly available sources, including those previously released by former Meta employees, detailed that Meta profited by purposely making its platforms addictive to children and teens. Its platform algorithms push users into descending “rabbit holes” in an effort to maximize engagement. Features like infinite scroll and near-constant alerts were created with the express goal of hooking young users. He said the manipulative tactics continually lured children and teens back onto the platform.

Tong said Meta knew these addictive features harmed young people’s physical and mental health, including undermining their ability to get adequate sleep, but did not disclose the harm nor did they make meaningful changes to minimize the harm. Instead, it claimed its platforms were safe for young users.

The choices, the complaint alleges, violate dstate consumer protection laws and COPPA. The federal complaint seeks injunctive and monetary relief to rectify the harms caused by these platforms.

States joining the federal lawsuit were 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, Washington, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.

Filing lawsuits in their own state courts were the District of Columbia, Florida, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah, and Vermont.

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CT joins multi-state suit against owner of ‘behavior cocaine’ platforms Instagram, Facebook - Eyewitness News 3
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