Meta intentionally allowed children to hold accounts and get addicted, lawsuit alleges
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Meta, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook, intentionally made its platforms such that it isaddictive to children, a recent unsealed legal complaint claimed. Media reports published on Monday (Nov 27) say that the lawsuit alleged that Meta knowingly allowed underage users to hold accounts to gather personal data and sell it to advertisers.
The federal lawsuit against Meta was filed by the attorneygenerals in 33 states in October, but the details were not revealed in the report. The lawsuit was filed by states ranging from California to Wisconsin.
Now the complaint has unveiled further details as it alleged that Meta harmed young users on Facebook and Instagram with highly manipulative algorithms and technological tools.
The complaint alleged that the social media giant knew about the issue, but it opted to never disclose it. Millions of complaints were also sent to Meta but it didn't take action in a broader perspective, butit did disable a fraction of those accounts.
Citing internal company documents, media reports mentioned that the large number of underage users was an "open secret" at the company.
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When the complaint was filed in October, 33 states in a joint statement claimed that Meta's business practices violated the federal Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and other state consumer protection laws. Similar actions were also taken by eight other states in state courts.
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As per the complaint, Meta in 2021 received over 402,000 reports that under 13 users are on Instagram. The tech company disabled only 164,000 accounts — a number half of the reported accounts and apparently with still a backlog of up to 2.5 million accounts of younger children awaiting action.
The 233-page complaint noted that attorneygenerals alleged that compulsive use of Facebook or Instagram by teens and children can cause physical and mental harm.
The case is based on snippets of emails, earnings call transcripts and other internal communications. The mentioned documents served as evidence which suggested how valuable personal information and time of young users are to the company.
As quoted by reports, a Meta spokesperson said in a statement on Monday: "The complaint mischaracterizes our work using selective quotes and cherry-picked documents."
(With inputs from agencies)