Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and Snapchat were all sued by the New York government (USA) for building social networks to manipulate and cause addiction in teenagers, according to Reuters.
Eric Adams, Mayor of New York City, just said that the government he leads has just filed a lawsuit against a series of social networking companies for causing a mental health crisis among young people. The list of companies being sued includes Meta (which owns Facebook, and Instagram), Google (manages YouTube ), Snap – the unit that develops the Snapchat application and ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok.
The lawsuit, filed in the California Superior Court, accuses the above companies of intentionally designing their social networking platforms “to manipulate and cause children and adolescents to become ‘addicted’ to these applications.” using social networks”.
“Over the past decade, everyone has witnessed how overwhelming and addictive the online world is, exposing our children to a never-ending stream of toxic information, causing a global financial crisis.” mental health crisis across the country,” Mr. Adams emphasized.
This is not the first time social media giants have been caught up in a similar lawsuit. They have come under scrutiny from regulators, constantly urged to protect children from harmful content online. Meta, TikTok, and YouTube are all the subjects of hundreds of lawsuits on behalf of children and schools because of their addictive nature.
Just last month, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg had to apologize to many families at a hearing before the US House of Representatives for the effects that social networks have on children. A Meta spokesperson said the company wants teens “to have safe, age-appropriate experiences online”; while TikTok announced its continued efforts to keep its user community safe by addressing industry challenges.
Alphabet – the parent company of both Google and YouTube – denied the accusations. Jose Castaneda – Google spokesperson said: “We have built services and policies so that young people have an age-appropriate experience, as well as parents have strict control. Therefore, The allegations in this complaint are untrue.”