Lawsuit: New York is accusing Meta and Alphabet of spurring a youth mental health crisis

The Big Apple is taking on the companies behind Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, and YouTube, accusing them of “public nuisance” and spurring a youth mental health crisis in the city. 

In a 327-page lawsuit filed last week in the Southern District of New York, the city of New York—along with its school districts and health department—alleges that “gross negligence” on the part of Meta, Alphabet, Snap, and ByteDance has hooked kids on social media through “algorithms that wield user data as a weapon against children and fuel the addiction machine.” 

Over one-third of 13- to 17-year-olds report using one of these social media platforms “almost constantly” and admit this is “too much,” according to the complaint. Yet more than half struggle to cut back on their social media use, the complaint finds. 

In January 2024, New York City’s health commissioner declared social media a public health hazard, placing a strain on the city’s resources as taxpayer dollars went toward addressing the resulting youth mental health crisis, the complaint says. 

The ripple effects of the teen behavioral health crisis—including depression, anxiety, substance use disorder, disordered eating, behavioral problems, and ADD/ADHD—are estimated to reach up to $185 billion in lifetime medical costs and $3 trillion in lifetime lost productivity and wages, according to the nonprofit United Hospital Fund. 

The city alleges that the platforms’ algorithms are designed to keep users scrolling, contributing to sleep loss, chronic absenteeism, and risk-taking behaviors. 

“Social media use by teens has recently been implicated in alarming increases in dangerous and even deadly off-campus activity in New York City,” the lawsuit alleges. The suit singles out the phenomenon known as “subway surfing.” This trend is inspired by the popular mobile game Subway Surfers, in which young kids and teens catch rides atop moving trains, often with fatal consequences. Just this month two girls, ages 12 and 13, died after climbing on top of a Brooklyn-bound J train and being struck by a low-hanging beam.

“Leaders and transportation authorities have grappled with the challenges of subway surfing for decades. Videos encouraging this kind of dangerous activity violate our policies, and we remove them when we become aware of them,” a Meta spokesperson tells Fast Company. “We will continue to work with MTA to address this issue, and will vigorously defend ourselves against this suit.”

New York City is among the largest plaintiffs to join other governments, school districts, and individuals pursuing around 2,050 similar lawsuits. 

“These lawsuits fundamentally misunderstand how YouTube works, and the allegations are simply not true,” José Castañeda, a Google spokesperson, tells Fast Company. “YouTube is a streaming service where people come to watch everything from live sports to podcasts to their favorite creators, primarily on TV screens, not a social network where people go to catch up with friends.”

He continued: “We’ve also developed dedicated tools like Supervised Experiences for young people, guided by child safety experts, that give families control.” 

Fast Company has reached out to Snap and ByteDance for comment. 

For decades, tech giants have been shielded from lawsuits in the U.S. by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which protects social media platforms from liability for third-party content. However, this case focuses not on content, but on product design and addictive features. 

“Defendants should be held to account for the harms their conduct has inflicted on New York City youth and on the NYC Plaintiffs’ educational and public health ecosystems,” the plaintiffs wrote in the complaint. “As it stands now, NYC Plaintiffs are left to abate the nuisance and foot the bill.”

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