Minnesota among states accusing Meta of targeting youth with addictive features on social media
ST. PAUL, Minn. — Minnesota has joined a massive lawsuit accusing Meta of purposefully deploying features on its social media platforms that are harmful to mental health among youth.
On Tuesday, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison announced that the state is now a part of a bipartisan coalition of 42 attorneys general throughout the country suing Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram. Meta faces lawsuits in both federal and state courts.
The lawsuit says Meta "knowingly designed and deployed" features on its social media platforms, including Instagram, that were meant to addict children and teens. According to the lawsuit, the company at the same time "falsely assured" the general public that the features were safe for younger users, Ellison's office said.
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"It's my job to protect Minnesotans, especially the most vulnerable. Meta is very intentionally trying to manipulate our children and teens into spending as much time on their platforms as possible, despite knowing this is causing serious harm," said Attorney General Ellison. "Meta's efforts to addict our young people and sacrifice their well-being for engagement is disgraceful, predatory, and illegal. I'm joining a bipartisan coalition of attorneys general to hold them accountable for it."
The lawsuit says the company's platform algorithms encourage users to go down "rabbit holes" with features like infinite scroll and "near-constant alerts" meant solely to hook young users.
Minnesota is part of the 33 states suing the company in federal court. The federal complaint was filed in U.S. District Court in the Northern District of California.
Last year, Minnesota also joined a similar lawsuit filed against TikTok.
