WASHINGTON, DC – Today, The Tech Oversight Project issued the following statement after Meta announced that it is pursuing a laughably frivolous lawsuit against the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for enforcing privacy protections for children online. Meta’s lawsuit comes after a barrage of recent negative news coverage. Background is below.
“From the multi-state lawsuit to whistleblower testimony, there is a mountain of evidence that Mark Zuckerberg and Meta’s senior leadership have been lying all along to the American people about their business practices and the real-world harm their platforms inflict on young people. Meta’s laughably frivolous lawsuit against the regulators who are trying to protect children proves the tech giant is grasping at straws in a moment when the inner workings of the company are being exposed, warts and all,” said Sacha Haworth, Executive Director of The Tech Oversight Project. “Rather than design his platforms with children’s safety and privacy in mind, Mark Zuckerberg is suing his regulators and engaging in a war on kids. The FTC’s consent decree is the drastic action needed to meet this moment, and we applaud Chair Lina Khan for protecting children and teens online and disincentivizing platforms like Facebook and Instagram from profiting off of minors while causing immeasurable harm.”
Recent News Coverage:
- Mark Zuckerberg and Meta leadership ignored efforts to make Instagram safer after it was brought to their attention that widespread sexual harassment of minors was taking place. [LINK]
- Recently unsealed court documents prove Mark Zuckerberg personally rejected Meta’s proposals to improve teen mental health on their platforms. [LINK]
- Meta’s Instagram algorithm was actively aiding and abetting sexual predators by making it easier for them to connect on their platforms. [LINK]
- In order to increase profits and screen time, Meta continually served sexual predators risqué footage of kids – many of which simulated sex acts. [LINK]
- Meta served ads from Fortune 100 brands next to sexually explicit images of minors. [LINK]
- Meta “routinely documented” children under 13 on Instagram and collected their data, according to a newly unsealed complaint – an apparent violation of minors’ privacy and an outright lie to Congress. [LINK]
- The lawsuit comes amid a multi-million-dollar effort by Meta, as well as Google, Apple, Amazon, and TikTok, to fund opposition to pending children’s online safety legislation and erode laws passed in statehouses. [LINK]