News Mania / Piyal Chatterjee / 19th October 2024
According to a judge, Meta Platforms (META.O), which launches a new tab, must deal with a complaint from Massachusetts that claims the social media business intentionally used features on its Instagram platform to deceive the public about the risks it posed to teens’ mental health and to addict young users. In a ruling made public on Friday, Suffolk County Superior Court Judge Peter Krupp in Boston denied Meta’s motion to have the Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell’s allegations that company had violated state consumer protection legislation and caused a public nuisance dismissed.
The operator of Facebook and Instagram said that Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996, a federal provision that generally protects internet businesses from litigation for user-posted content, precluded the state’s case. According to Krupp, the statute did not apply to the misleading claims that Meta made regarding Instagram’s safety, its attempts to safeguard the welfare of its younger users, or its age-verification measures to make sure individuals under the age of 13 do not use the site.
According to him, the state was “principally seeking to hold Meta liable for its own business conduct,” not anything shared by third parties, therefore claims about the detrimental effects of Instagram’s design elements were also not excluded. The judge’s decision, according to a statement from Democrat Campbell, means that “we can now move forward with our claims to hold Meta accountable and continue to push for meaningful change on Meta’s platforms that will protect young users.”
The company disagreed with the decision, according to a Meta representative, adding the “evidence will demonstrate our commitment to supporting young people.” The decision was made after a federal judge in California denied Meta’s plea on Tuesday to have cases from over 30 states that accused the company of causing juvenile mental health issues by making its social media platforms addicting dismissed. When Massachusetts filed a lawsuit in October 2023, it was one of just a few states to pursue separate claims in state court as opposed to federal.
Its initial charges that CEO Mark Zuckerberg had dismissed worries that some features of Instagram would negatively impact its users made it one of the more well-known lawsuits. According to the lawsuit, Instagram features including push notifications, “likes” on user postings, and an endless scroll were created to take advantage of teenagers’ psychological weaknesses and “fear of missing out.”Top executives rejected reforms that the state claimed would improve the well-being of teenagers, despite internal data showing the platform was addictive and hurting children.
