TikTok was notified about a teen with social media addiction, Zuckerberg

According to court documents, employees at Meta Platforms and ByteDance were aware of their platforms' negative effects on children and teenagers. Still, they chose to ignore this knowledge or, in some cases, actively sought to undermine it. The information was revealed in a social media addiction case that was previously filed but with certain important details hidden from the public.

The details of how much engineers and others, including Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, were aware of the negative effects of social media and their reservations about it are provided in an unredacted version that was filed over the weekend in federal court in Oakland, California.

One Meta employee reportedly wrote in 2021, "No one gets up knowing they want to maximise the number of times they access Instagram that day," according to the suit. But that is precisely what our product teams are attempting to achieve.

The lawsuit in Oakland is a compilation of numerous complaints made on behalf of teenagers and young people throughout the US, who claim that exposure to Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, and Google's YouTube has left them with anxiety, depression, eating disorders, and sleep difficulties.

According to allegations that the businesses purposefully created algorithms that led kids down risky and addictive courses, more than a dozen suicides have allegedly been attributed to the companies. Also, several public school districts have filed lawsuits, claiming they cannot carry out their educational purpose while dealing with the mental health crises of their students.

The social media behemoths defend themselves by citing a rule from 1996 that grants internet platforms extensive immunity from lawsuits involving damaging content submitted by users. Both parties are keeping a close eye on a Supreme Court case that will probably decide the outcome of the Oakland litigation.

The company is aware that young people are more likely to be persuaded to attempt risky stunts they see on the platform - viral challenges - because their capacity to assess risk isn't fully developed, according to the new filing, which includes internal documents from TikTok parent ByteDance. According to the report, young people are more likely to "overestimate their capacity to manage danger" and have a limited capacity to grasp the inevitability of death.

Another piece of the filing that has yet to be sealed claims that Meta cut the funding for its mental health team rather than take action to address the issues related to youngsters using Facebook and Instagram.

In the filing, it is claimed that Zuckerberg received a personal warning: "We are not on track to succeed for our fundamental well-being concerns (problematic use, bullying & harassment [and] relationships...), and are at heightened regulatory risk and external criticism. If they are not addressed, they will accompany us into the Metaverse and have an impact on everyone, especially Youth and Creators.

Snap was unable to comment immediately on the court document—requests for comment from representatives of Meta and TikTok were delayed. The firms have previously stated that user safety is a top priority. They have made proactive measures to increase access to mental health resources and give parents more control over how their children use the platforms.