US court rules Meta must face trial over teen’s social media addiction

Washington:

Facebook’s parent company, Meta, must face lawsuits from US states that accuse it of encouraging social media addiction among teenagers, a California federal judge ruled on Tuesday .

Oakland-based U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers rejected Meta’s bid to throw out claims made by the states in two separate lawsuits filed last year, one involving more than 30 states and the ‘other only includes Florida.

The company had argued that federal law blocked some of the claims and that states failed to point out the misleading statements it had made.

The judge placed some limits on the claims the states — more than 30 in total — could pursue, but allowed the case to move forward largely intact. The judge also denied the social media company’s motion to dismiss some social media addiction claims brought by individual plaintiffs.

The states are asking the court for injunctive relief against Meta’s alleged illegal business practices and seeking unspecified monetary damages.

Meta did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Several plaintiffs have filed hundreds of lawsuits against Meta, ByteDance’s TikTok and Alphabet’s YouTube, accusing the companies of designing addictive algorithms that led to anxiety, depression and body image problems among teenagers, and of failing to warn of their risks.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is being published from a syndicated feed.)