New Lawsuit Holds Social Media Apps Accountable For Teen Addictions And Self-Harm

A new legal case has been filed in the federal court of California and it accuses social media giants of intentionally disregarding the great harm they impose on users.

From Meta’s apps to TikTok, Snapchat, YouTube, and more - the case says all these companies chose to intentionally disregard the dangers they pose to children and teenagers in particular.

It was last year in October when we heard more about this case and how more than two dozen complaints had been filed and that is what led to this single class action lawsuit. But now, the case has picked up the pace and we’re hearing more about it.

Among the long list of accusations, a lot of complaints have to do with the use of algorithms that drive plenty of addictive behaviors that lead to anxiety, sleeplessness, depression, and some major eating disorders that end up in self-harm.

Clearly, the documents being presented at this moment in time were never seen in the past and it’s awfully concerning how so many social media firms are treating this endeavor as one that’s linked to public relations as compared to their own platforms being a real threat to security.

This entails burying internal research that records such harms and also blocking all sorts of safety measures as they tend to decrease the engagement seen there. Lastly, they are defunding all of those teams that keep users’ mental health as a major priority as they’re not finding it profitable.

To be more specific, the suit has added that such big names in the tech world are encouraging the behavior of addicts and bypassing all kinds of parental guidance and controls in place. They’re also failing to confirm the ages of users and end up protecting against different kinds of harmful content and go about multiplying such content too.

The lawsuit is even going about directing a message to Mark Zuckerberg where it says Meta wasn’t on track in terms of succeeding in so many core topics linked to well-being. And the complaint is backed up by the likes of internal studies that Meta conducted on its own. The alarming results showed how its own platforms are huge risks to younger audiences.

But Meta disagrees and says that it is working hard at maximizing security and privacy for users on the app. They also claim to be increasing funding to ensure users' rights are safeguarded in the right manner.

H/T: Mediapost

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by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World