US states file suit against Meta, accused of harming children’s health

2023-10-24 16:46:17

More than forty American states have decided to sue Meta, accusing Facebook and Instagram of harming the “mental and physical health of the nation’s youth,” according to the complaint filed Tuesday in a California court.

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“Meta exploited powerful and unprecedented technologies to attract (…) and ultimately trap young people and adolescents, in order to make profits,” assert the attorneys general in the introduction to the complaint, consulted by AFP .

The states, Democrats and Republicans, add that the Californian group has, according to them, “concealed the way in which these platforms exploit and manipulate its most vulnerable consumers”, and “neglected the considerable damage that these platforms have caused to the mental and physical health of young people of our country.

This legal action represents the culmination of investigations carried out over two years into the methods of the two platforms, considered “addictive” by the authorities.

The attorneys general mobilized in the fall of 2021 following a former Facebook employee raised the alarm regarding the practices of her former company.

Engineer Frances Haugen leaked more than 20,000 pages of internal documents, insisting in front of various parliaments that the social network was putting profits before the safety of its users.

Tuesday’s complaint also accuses Meta of violating the Children’s Privacy Act.

The States are asking the courts to force Meta to put an end to its practices and are demanding the payment of fines.

Meta did not immediately respond to a request from AFP.

American attorneys general regularly face off once morest technology giants, particularly on questions of monopoly or protection of personal information.

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