42 attorneys general file complaint against Meta over ‘harmful messages’ to youth – By Clyde Hughes (UPI) / Oct 24, 2023
Oct. 24 (UPI) — Forty-two attorneys general announced Tuesday that are suing Meta, the parent of Facebook, for features they charge are addictive and targeted at children and teenagers, while nine others are filing separate claims.
The filing presents a rare near unified front by state law enforcers against the social media giant that owns Instagram, as well as Facebook. They allege that the products Meta has designed to keep a hold of young people’s interests have a negative effect on their mental health.
Connecticut Attorney General William Tong said that Meta’s practices 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 and devastated families.
“Meta saw American kids as a ‘valuable and untapped market’ — nameless factors on a bottom line to maximize profits,” Tong said in a statement. “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.
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