DC Attorney General sues Meta, claims addictive social media platform endangering youth

WASHINGTON (7News) — D.C.'s Attorney General's Office is suing social media company Meta in another attempt by local leaders across the country to hold the platform accountable for alleged intentionally harmful activity toward youth on all of its platforms, according to a statement on Tuesday.

In this latest suit, District Attorney General Brian Schwalb accused Meta of knowingly designing Facebook, Instagram, and its other platforms in a way that would cause an increase in time spent on those apps, but lead to rabbit holes that caused serious harm to mental health in youth.

The announcement comes as Attorneys General from at least 33 states joined together in the bipartisan lawsuit. Attorneys General in Maryland and Virginia have also joined the suit.

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His office added that it has resulted in a rise in cases of suicidal ideation, anxiety, and depression across the country. In the District's 2021 Youth Risk Behavior Survey, over 70% of all District high school students reported spending more than three hours of their day on screen time while just over two-thirds of District middle school students reported the same.

Features like infinite scroll and near-content alerts from the platform were specifically targeted by the AG's office in their statement as features intentionally made by Meta to "continually lure children and teens back onto the platform."

It's another lawsuit added to a stack of growing legal troubles for Mark Zuckerburg's company both here in the U.S. and overseas as government leaders work to crack down on many of the company's alleged deceptive business practices.

According to the Associated Press, the broad-ranging suit is the result of an investigation led by a bipartisan coalition of attorneys general from California, Florida, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Nebraska, New Jersey, Tennessee and Vermont. It also follows after a 2021 report from the Wall Street Journal based on Meta's own research that they knew about the harms Instagram can cause teenagers — especially teen girls — when it comes to mental health and body image issues.

Meta released this statement following the announced lawsuit:

“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.”

D.C. filed a lawsuit in 2018, alleging that the platform deceived audiences by not publicly disclosing where they share their third-party data, according to the New York Times. A judge tossed out that case earlier this year.