US EditionMeta pulls ads aimed at recruiting plaintiffs for social media addiction lawsuits
The company removed more than a dozen ads after recent losses in two trials and amid more than 3,300 pending addiction lawsuits in California.
- On April 9, Meta Platforms began removing recruitment ads from Facebook and Instagram seeking plaintiffs for lawsuits alleging the company designed its platforms to be addictive to young users.
- A California verdict found Meta negligent for addictive design harms to users under 18, and a separate New Mexico judgment ordered Meta to pay $375 million in damages, prompting the removals.
- More than 3,300 addiction lawsuits are pending in California state court, with law firms including Morgan & Morgan and Sokolove Law using social media to recruit plaintiffs for the litigation.
- Meta spokesman Andy Stone stated the company will "not allow trial lawyers to profit from our platforms while simultaneously claiming they are harmful," citing terms of service clauses to mitigate adverse legal impacts.
- Ads for these cases persist on Google, where the Social Media Victims Law Center continues advertising, while mass tort television ads nationwide reached 671 in March, according to advertising tracker Rustin Silverstein.
31 Articles
31 Articles
Meta Pulls Recruitment Ads for People Addicted to Social Media
Meta—the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp—has stopped allowing firms to post advertisements recruiting people as plaintiffs for lawsuits against social media companies over social media addiction. A Meta spokesperson told The Epoch Times in an email on April 10 that the company is actively defending itself against the lawsuits, which include thousands of cases in state and federal court, and is removing the ads. “We will not a…
No Longer Untouchable: Product Design Lawsuits Expose Social Media’s Vulnerability
Attorneys representing victims of social media may have finally found Big Tech’s Achilles Heel: product design. From the late 1990s on, hundreds of lawsuits against social media companies (including Meta, Google/YouTube, TikTok, and Snap) alleging harms such as cyberbullying, self-harm and suicide, eating disorders, sexual exploitation, and harm resulting from viral challenges were dismissed in […]
Meta Shuts Down Ads From ‘Trial Lawyers’ Targeting Social Platform Over Addiction
Meta has begun scrubbing ads offering legal help for damages related to social media addiction and the associated harmful behaviors.According to a report from Axios on Thursday, Meta has begun pulling ads — from both Facebook and Instagram — that provide users with information about getting legal advice or taking legal action against social media platforms.Axios quoted an example of one of the ads that was pulled: “Anxiety. Depression. Withdrawa…
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