This topic tracks and analyzes ongoing youth-related lawsuits against Meta in the United States.
Meta Platforms is facing a series of youth-related trials in the US that could lead to material loss from 2026. The two major suites include the State of New Mexico lawsuit and the Social Media Addiction Lawsuits. State of New Mexico alleges that Meta failed to protect children from sexual abuse, online solicitation, and human trafficking while the Social Media Addiction Lawsuits claims that social media platforms such as Meta, YouTube, TikTok and Snapchat use sophisticated algorithms to maximize engagement in ways that may exploit the developing brains of children and teenagers.
My current assessment is that these suites will likely end up in a settlement and that the financial impact may not be more than $5 billion.
I=6 USA appeals court appears inclined to allow lawsuits against Meta Platforms and other social media platforms to proceed
USA appeals court judges questioned whether it was too early to consider whether Meta Platforms and other social media platforms are immune to lawsuits alleging their platforms are designed to be addictive.
The companies argue Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 protect them from liability stemming from what is posted on their sites, including allegations that they failed to warned the public about the addictive nature of their platforms.
The plaintiffs argue that their claims are about the features of the platforms and not their content.
The appeal judges also questioned Meta’s argument that Section 230 provides them with immunity from all suits and said the judge covering the case had indicated in her orders that she was open to considering Meta’s Section 230 arguments later in the litigation.
Assessment
In my opinion, this is a procedural setback and not a legal precedent against Meta. I still think that the headwind could be limited given some protection from Section 230 and the possibility of settlements.