New York City has taken legal action against major social media platforms TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat and YouTube for allegedly causing mental health issues among young users.
What Happened: On Wednesday, New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced that the city has filed a lawsuit against ByteDance, Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ:META), Snap Inc. (NYSE:SNAP) and Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL), the parent companies of these platforms. Notably, all these companies are headquartered in California.
The lawsuit, filed in the Los Angeles County branch of the California Superior Court, accuses the companies of deliberately designing and marketing their platforms to attract and addict young users, with minimal parental oversight, CNBC reported.
See Also: Meta Steps Up for Child Online Safety: Zuckerberg to Testify as Company Tightens Privacy Controls
The plaintiffs, including the city of New York, school districts, and health organizations, argue that the tech companies have violated several city laws related to public nuisance and gross negligence through the design and marketing of their addictive products.
They claim that the mental health of children in New York has been severely impacted by their use of popular social media apps.
Mayor Adams ...