Meta is facing 8 lawsuits claiming Facebook and Instagram lure young people into addiction for profit

Meta is currently facing a fresh set of lawsuits that accuse the company of deliberately making two of its platforms, Facebook and Instagram, addictive to young people in order to make profits from them.

Beasley Allen Law, the law firm that filed the eight lawsuits last week, said that the young users were driven to self-harm or developed eating disorders and sleeplessness after excessive use of Facebook and Instagram. The lawsuits were filed in Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Missouri, Tennessee, and Texas.

“The defendants knew that their products and related services were dangerous to young and impressionable children and teens, yet they completely disregarded their own information,” said Andy Birchfield, a Beasley Allen attorney, in a statement on Wednesday.

One of the suits was filed on Monday by a Tennessee mother who said that her 15-year-old daughter’s heavy use of Meta’s products led her to suicidal ideation and self-harm.

According to court documents seen by Insider, the woman’s attorneys said her daughter received notifications from the apps all day, causing her to become addicted to the apps.

She is also suffering from an eating disorder, severe anxiety, depression, and poor sleep, per the lawsuit.

The lawsuit said that Meta failed to warn the daughter and her mother “of the dangers of addiction, sleep deprivation, and problematic use of the Meta platform(s).” It also claimed that the company “misrepresented the safety, utility, and non-addictive properties of their products.”