This week on Wednesday (8th), the city of Boston, the capital of Massachusetts, filed a lawsuit against social media companies like Meta in the Northern District Court of California, accusing them of harming the mental health of students in Boston public schools, making it the latest member to join the litigation against social media.
According to a press release from the Mayor’s Office in Boston, over the past decade, the mental health needs of students in the Boston public school system (BPS) have significantly increased, directly related to the prevalence of addictive social media platforms. In 2021, 44% of BPS high school students continued to feel “sad,” a far higher percentage than the 27% recorded in 2015.
The lawsuit alleges that social media platforms intentionally use addictive features such as endless scrolling and targeted algorithms to attract minors, causing teenagers to become addicted and suffer from mental health crises. Additionally, the age verification mechanisms of these social media platforms are flawed, allowing children to access these platforms without adequate protection.
Alexandra Oliver-Davila, Executive Director of the Boston extracurricular organization “Sociedad Latina,” stated: “These tech giants are well aware of the harm caused by their platforms but choose to prioritize profits over the well-being of young people.” The association supports holding these social media companies accountable.
Upon discovering the harm social media poses to the physical and mental health as well as learning of students, the Boston public school system has implemented various measures including prevention, intervention, education, and involving families to address students’ mental crises.
This lawsuit lists Meta, TikTok, Snapchat, and YouTube among several social media platforms as defendants. More than 1,500 school districts across the United States have filed similar lawsuits, which are expected to be consolidated for trial.
Prior to Boston’s lawsuit against these social media platforms, 33 states including California, Colorado, Kentucky, and New Jersey had filed similar lawsuits, with just those four states seeking total fines amounting to $1.4 trillion.
Last month, California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced a crucial victory in the lawsuit against social media companies including Meta, as the court rejected Meta’s attempt to terminate the lawsuit, with a preliminary hearing scheduled for August.
Bonta believes that the court’s rejection of Meta’s attempt to end the lawsuit will help California hold this tech giant accountable, “for exacerbating a mental health crisis among American children; California is proud to lead this national reckoning, and we look forward to holding Meta accountable during the August trial.”
The calculation method determining the $1.4 trillion claim amount is based on state laws, multiplying the number of violations (number of underage users affected by addictive design) by the statutory penalty amount.
Meta argues that the above calculation method is flawed, leading to double counting, it ignores whether users have interacted with the functions involved in the lawsuit, and the fine amounts lack precedent in consumer protection enforcement history. The company also asserts that the penalty amounts are “completely disproportionate” to the alleged wrongdoing, essentially violating due process terms, and requests the court to determine the compensation amount instead of a jury.
Social media companies face an unfavorable position in this legal battle. Meta has lost multiple lawsuits in the past or paid significant settlement amounts.
In March of this year, New Mexico sued Meta with success, winning a judgment that ordered Meta to pay a $5,000 fine for each violation, totaling a fine of $375 million.
Additionally, following the ruling in the New Mexico lawsuit at the end of March, a jury in a Los Angeles Superior Court also ruled that Meta and YouTube should compensate a 20-year-old woman suffering from depression and anxiety, who has been addicted to social media since childhood, with $6 million. Both companies disagree with the judgment, with YouTube’s parent company Google planning to appeal.
In a lawsuit filed by a rural school district in Kentucky in May, several tech giants paid substantial settlement amounts, with Meta paying $9 million, TikTok and Google paying $8 million each, and YouTube paying over $2 million.
Over the past four years, the number of lawsuits against these social media companies in the United States has reached thousands, with plaintiffs including state attorneys general, school districts, and individuals. ◇