Meta will face lawsuits brought by US states on charges of fueling mental health problems among teenagers by making its platforms, Facebook and Instagram, addictive, a federal judge in California ruled on Tuesday.
U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers of Oakland rejected Meta’s attempt to dismiss claims made by states in two separate lawsuits filed last year. One of the lawsuits included more than 30 states, including California and New York, and the other was filed by Florida.
Rogers placed some limits on the claims, agreeing with Meta that a federal law, known as Section 230, which regulates online platforms, partially protects the company.
However, she found that the states presented sufficient details about alleged misleading statements made by the company to proceed with the majority of their case.
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The judge also rejected requests from Meta, TikTok (owned by ByteDance), YouTube (owned by Alphabet) and SnapChat (owned by Snap) to dismiss personal injury lawsuits filed by individual plaintiffs. The other companies are not defendants in the states’ lawsuits.
The decision paves the way for states and other plaintiffs to seek more evidence, potentially going to trial. But this is not a final decision on the merits of the cases.
A Meta spokesperson said the company disagrees with the ruling overall and that it has “developed numerous tools to support parents and teens,” including new “Teen Accounts” on Instagram, with additional protections.
(Reporting by Brendan Pierson in New York)
