Kiera Riley
Arizona Capitol Times
Attorney General Kris Mayes filed a lawsuit against Instagram and Facebook’s parent company Meta, alongside 32 other states alleging the company “purposefully” addicted children to social media.
At a press conference (Tuesdayy) morning, Mayes called out Meta for alleged data harvesting, as well as failure to authenticate age, and claimed features like “infinite scroll,” autoplay, alerts and likes contributed to a youth mental health crisis.
“These manipulative tactics continually lure children and teens back into the platform,” Mayes said. “Meta was well aware of the harms to young users, yet it continued to develop and implement features that made its platforms increasingly addictive.”
The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, stems from a years-long investigation into the social media company.
Attorneys general started investigating Meta in 2021, which at the time fell under former Attorney General Mark Brnovich. Mayes noted a parallel investigation into TikTok, a video social media site employing similar tactics, remains ongoing.
