The parent company of Instagram, Meta, has been named in two new lawsuits that claim the photo- and video-sharing service is bad for mental health, especially in kids and teenagers.
More claims have been made that Instagram, a photo- and video-sharing app owned by Facebook's parent corporation Meta, is responsible for negative mental health consequences like depression, eating disorders, and suicide attempts.
On Monday, the Social Media Victims Law Center on behalf of two Kentucky families filed two cases in a federal court in Northern California against Meta. The social media behemoth is charged in both instances with putting user engagement ahead of user safety and fostering a "perfect storm of addiction, social comparison, and exposure to incredibly harmful content and product features."
"Despite knowledge of the dangerous and harmful characteristics of its product, Meta has made and continues to make calculated cost-benefit business decisions and is consistently prioritizing their already astronomical profits over human life," the lawsuits said
Following the disclosure of internal studies regarding the negative effects the app may have on underage girls by Frances Haugen, a former Facebook product manager turned whistleblower, lawsuits have been filed against Instagram. Some of those materials are cited in the litigation.
An inquiry for a remark didn't get a response right away from Meta. Adam Mosseri, the CEO of Instagram, pledged to protect users during his first-ever testimony before Congress last year. In addition to trying several feed formats, including a chronological one, the company added additional parental controls in March and a new method to confirm that users are at least 13 years old.
Despite all of these efforts, Instagram's detractors still claim that the social media network isn't doing enough to prevent any negative effects on mental health. Both lawsuits accuse Meta of engaging in dishonest business activities and deceiving Congress and the general public of the negative impacts of its products.
According to the allegations, Instagram exposed two of the plaintiffs, who were 12 when they signed up for the platform, to eating disorder information and led them to believe they weren't good enough. Both girls made suicide attempts, and one of them had a feeding tube while in the hospital because she continued refusing to eat.
At least nine further lawsuits accuse Meta of endangering the mental health of adolescents, according to Reuters, which first reported on the lawsuits.
