Meta is getting the Big Tobacco treatment

More than 40 attorneys general sued Meta yesterday, accusing the social media company of illegally misleading the public about the harm its products could impose on children and teens. The result? It helped fuel a youth mental health crisis, the complaints allege.

The crux: Meta’s business model is dependent upon users spending as much time on its apps as possible. Which, the attorneys general allege, causes the company to intentionally design its products to keep young users engaged longer and repeatedly coming back, despite the negative mental health effects. Think: constant notifications, as well as features like infinite scroll and disappearing Stories (which creates FOMO, at least one suit alleges).

• An internal Meta finding revealed in the WSJ’s 2021 Facebook Files investigation showed 32% of teen girls who felt bad about their bodies said using Instagram made them feel worse.

✋ Yes, but: Meta has argued that research on this topic is mixed. And the science is complicated. A 2020 meta-analysis of meta-analyses (aka the gold standard of statistical reviews) found increased use of digital technology led to a small negative effect on well-being, but a causal link between the two was difficult to pinpoint.

📸 Big picture: The AGs’ overall legal strategy has been compared to the various lawsuits filed against Big Tobacco in the 1990s, which led to hundreds of billions of dollars in damages and changed how the industry markets its products.