Illinois is one of 33 states joining a federal lawsuit against Meta Platforms, the company that owns the popular social media platforms Facebook and Instagram.
The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in the federal district court for the Northern District of California, alleges the Menlo Park, California-based company has engaged in deceptive business practices that have “profoundly altered the psychological and social realities of a generation of young Americans” and ignored the “sweeping damage” its social media platforms have had on kids.
“Meta has harnessed powerful and unprecedented technologies to entice, engage, and ultimately ensnare youth and teens,” the complaint alleges. “Its motive is profit, and in seeking to maximize its financial gains, Meta has repeatedly misled the public about the substantial dangers of its Social Media Platforms.”
Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul said in a statement Tuesday that “our children are in crisis.”
“The addictive features on Meta’s social media platforms interfere with sleep and education, enable cyberbullying, and contribute to depression, anxiety, body dysmorphia and thoughts of self-harm,” Raoul said. “I believe the action we are taking today against Meta is one of — if not the most — important consumer protection actions my office will take. The consequences will affect an entire generation of young people.”
Illinois is seeking an injunction to prevent violations of the Consumer Fraud Act, penalties up to $50,000 per incident of unfair or deceptive practices, and an additional $50,000 for each practice found to have been committed with the intent to defraud. The state is also seeking restitution to Illinois consumers, demanding that Meta give up profits that were illegally obtained and seeking reimbursement of its legal costs.
According to the complaint, Meta designed its social media platforms with features that keep young users on the platforms longer, such as infinite scroll, which loads content continuously. Meta violated the federal Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) by collecting the personal information of children under the age of 13 without obtaining parental permission as required by that statute, the lawsuit alleges.
“We share the attorneys general’s commitment to providing teens with safe, positive experiences online, and have already introduced over 30 tools to support teens and their families. We’re disappointed that instead of working productively with companies across the industry to create clear, age-appropriate standards for the many apps teens use, the attorneys general have chosen this path,” a Meta spokesperson said Tuesday in a statement.
Rose and Rob Bronstein said their son, Nate, is among those who have been harmed by Meta, which has “for far too long placed profits over children’s safety,” the Chicago parents said in a statement. Their son, a 15-year-old student at Latin School of Chicago, was cyberbullied by his fellow students and died by suicide in 2022.
“These teens, blinded by the drive to get shares and views, and emboldened by features like self-deleting messages, relied on social media to send vile, threatening messages to Nate, leading to his tragic passing,” the parents said in a statement. “Reasonable people everywhere have long realized the danger that social media poses to our children, yet the unsafe features remain, and the harm continues, while the profits grow.”
Meta Platforms owns four of the biggest social media platforms, all with over 1 billion monthly active users each, according to Statista: Facebook, which has nearly 3 billion active users, WhatsApp with 2 billion, Instagram with 2 billion and Facebook Messenger with 1 billion.
According to a 2022 survey by Pew Research Center, while the number of teens who use Facebook has dropped drastically over the years, 32% of them use the platform. Instagram sees a higher percentage of young users, with 60% of teens surveyed saying they use the photo- and video-centric app.
About 35% of teens say they are using at least one of the top five online platforms: YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat and Facebook “almost constantly.”
The mental health impact of social media is a “serious public health issue complicating a serious mental health crisis” for children and their families, National Alliance on Mental Illness of Illinois CEO Alexa James said.
“Smartphones and social media are almost universally in every young person’s hand and have the capacity to deeply harm and exacerbate mental health challenges for young people,” James said.
Tuesday’s lawsuit stems from a bipartisan nationwide investigation launched in 2021 by Raoul and attorneys general across the country into Meta Platforms, examining whether the company violated state consumer protection laws and put the public at risk.
It’s the latest in a string of legal actions against the tech giant. Last year Meta settled a data privacy lawsuit involving Cambridge Analytica for $750 million, which came on the heels of another $650-million settlement that applied to just users in Illinois.
