Newly unsealed court documents allege that Meta showed leniency toward sex traffickers on its social media platforms, raising questions over whether the parent company of Facebook and Instagram has prioritized the safety of minors. The allegations came to light in a lawsuit filed by more than 1,800 plaintiffs.
The lawsuit claims one Meta researcher compared Instagram to “a drug.”
“We’re basically pushers,” the researcher allegedly wrote.
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16 violations before accounts banned
A collection of parents, children, school districts and attorneys general sued Meta, as well as Snapchat, TikTok and Google, in the Northern District of California. The companies recklessly ignored “the impact of their products on children’s mental and physical health,” the suit says.
Citing internal company documents and sworn depositions from current and former Meta employees, the lawsuit claims that the tech company not only downplayed the risks posed by apps such as Instagram to children but also misled the public.
Vaishnavi Jayakumar, Instagram’s former head of safety and well-being, testified in a deposition that the company largely tolerated suspected sex traffickers who used the platform.
After joining the company in 2020, Jayakumar said that Meta would remove accounts accused of aiding sex trafficking only after 17 infractions.
“You could incur 16 violations for prostitution and sexual solicitation, and upon the 17th violation, your account would be suspended,” Jayakumar said.
Meta has denied the allegation. The company said it has immediately and permanently deleted accounts suspected of human trafficking and exploitation for years.
Meta said the lawsuit contains “cherry-picked quotes and misinformed opinions.” Along with other defendants, the company has sought to have the case dismissed.
“The full record will show that for over a decade, we have listened to parents, researched issues that matter most, and made real changes to protect teens – like introducing Teen Accounts with built-in protections and providing parents with controls to manage their teens’ experiences,” a Meta spokesperson told Time. “We’re proud of the progress we’ve made, and we stand by our record.”
‘More usage meant more profits’
The allegation about failing to shut down sex traffickers’ accounts is just one example of what the lawsuit describes as a pattern of indifference toward the safety of minors on social media. Despite the dangers, the platforms are designed to be addictive to children, said Previn Warren, the plaintiffs’ colead attorney, according to Time.
“Like tobacco, this is a situation where there are dangerous products that were marketed to kids,” Warren said. “They did it anyway, because more usage meant more profits for the company.”
The lawsuit points to Meta’s internal research on social media’s effects on children’s mental health, including an internal chat message in which one of its researchers likened Instagram to an addictive drug.
It also says an internal audit from 2022 discovered that Instagram’s “Accounts You May Follow” feature recommended 1.4 million potentially suspicious adult users to teenagers in just one day.
Aside from the alleged dangers posed by potential child predators, the lawsuit also says Meta failed to remove content related to child sexual abuse material, suicide and eating disorders.
