NYC files lawsuit against social media giants over youth mental health crisis

New York City has sued social media giants, including Facebook, Snapchat, Google, TikTok, and other platforms for making youth addictive and damaging their mental health.

The lawsuit consisting of 327 pages filed in federal court in Manhattan on Wednesday, not only accused defendants of sheer negligence but also demands compensation of damages from Meta, owner of Instagram and Facebook, Alphabet, parent company of YouTube and Google, Snap, and ByteDance.

The US largest city collaborated with other governments, individuals, and school districts for pursuing 2050 lawsuits against social media platforms.

According to city’s authorities, social media companies are harming kids and teens for the sake of a profit boom and making them addicted to an algorithmically-driven “endless feed” of content and “incessant notifications.” Consequently, children’s heads are constantly glued to screens.

With the population of 8.48 million, New York City has about 1.8 million under age 18. Not only do its schools but also healthcare systems are also plaintiffs.

Instead of feeding coins into slot machines, kids are feeding [social media] platforms with an endless supply of attention, time, and data,” the city said.

The officials also accused tech giants of using their apps to harm the users’ wellbeing with impunity.

The lawsuit came on the heels of growing concerns of social media impacts on children globally. Earlier this week, Denmark proposed a ban on social media for children under age 15.