More than 40 American states have decided to sue Meta, accusing Facebook and Instagram of harming the “mental and physical health of the country’s youth”, according to the complaint filed this Tuesday in a Californian court. “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 of the complaint.
The states, Democrats and Republicans, add that the California group has, according to them, “concealed the way in which these platforms exploit and manipulate its most vulnerable consumers” and “neglected the considerable harm these platforms have caused to mental and physical health 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, after a former Facebook employee raised the alarm about 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.
This Tuesday’s complaint also accuses Meta of violating the law on the confidentiality of personal data of children. The States are asking the courts to force the company to put an end to its practices and demanding the payment of fines. Meta did not immediately respond to a request from AFP.
American attorneys general regularly face off against technology giants, particularly on questions of monopoly or protection of personal information.
2023-10-24 17:09:15
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