A court hearing is set to proceed regarding a lawsuit filed by 30 US states against tech giant Meta, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook, accusing the platform of employing practices that expose teenagers to harm and social media addiction.
If the lawsuit is successful, significant changes could be forced upon core features across Instagram and Facebook, including 'likes', infinite scroll, autoplay, and persistent notifications.
Led by states including California and New York, the coalition of 30 US states alleges that Meta compromised the safety of minors by implementing mechanics designed to keep teenagers engaged on the social platforms for extended periods and driving them back to the apps repeatedly.
The legal arguments specifically target mechanisms that immediately serve users subsequent engaging content to retain them within the application space.
A central point of contention involves the 'like' feature. The filing highlights how adolescents linking their self-worth to engagement metrics like 'likes' can exacerbate feelings of isolation, alienation, body image distortion, and other adverse psychological impacts.
The US states are asking the court to order Meta to implement strict modifications to adolescent usage, including strengthening parental control systems over youth accounts and limiting continuous infinite scroll functionalities.
Additional proposed restrictions include ending dopamine-triggering automated content delivery sequences, halting appearance-altering filters, hiding 'like' metrics, and disabling autoplay video features.
The demands further require restrictions preventing users from opening multiple accounts and a reduction in notification frequencies designed to pull teenagers back to the platforms.
Meta has rejected the allegations, stating the company maintains a long-standing commitment to supporting teenagers and announcing plans to contest the claims in court with evidence.
Observers note that if Meta is legally compelled to alter its systems as requested, Instagram and Facebook could look drastically different from their current formats. The company was previously ordered to pay 942 million dollars in a separate recent legal proceeding in New Mexico.
