Meta, YouTube, TikTok, and Snapchat are well aware of how addictive their platforms are for teenagers, yet they continue to attract young users. These are the assertions made by a group of school districts in a lawsuit against the social media giants, according to a recently unsealed court document that quotes the companies’ own internal materials. “Instagram (IG) is like a drug… we are essentially drug dealers,” Meta researchers allegedly stated in an internal chat, as claimed in the lawsuit. An internal TikTok report noted that “minors lack the executive functions to limit their screen time.” Snapchat executives once admitted that users “addicted to Snapchat have no room for anything else. Snap dominates their lives.” And YouTube employees once stated that “incentivizing more frequent daily use [did not align with] efforts to improve digital well-being,” the lawsuit says. The memo, containing internal comments, research, and employee testimony, was submitted as evidence in a massive lawsuit initiated by hundreds of individuals, school districts, and attorneys general from across the US against the four companies—Meta (owner of Instagram), Snap, TikTok, and Google (owner of YouTube)—in the Northern California District Court. The complaint alleges that the platforms “intentionally deployed design features on their platforms to maximize youth engagement for the purpose of increasing advertising revenue.” And the school districts claim the social media companies have contributed to a youth mental health crisis that schools are forced to address by investing in counseling and other resources. The companies have sought to have the case dismissed. Representatives for Meta, TikTok, and Snap stated that Friday’s document presents a distorted picture of their platforms and safety measures. CNN also reached out to YouTube for comment. The 235-page memo unsealed Friday, filed by the plaintiffs in the case, paints a picture of firms fully aware that their apps can harm teens and children but continuing to target young users for engagement and profit. It also cites internal documents suggesting the companies are aware of the limited effectiveness of their well-being and parental control features. CNN was unable to independently verify the authenticity of the comments and internal documents mentioned in the lawsuit. Parents, researchers, whistleblowers, and lawmakers have previously voiced concerns that tech giants prioritize profit over user safety, especially for the young. In a Senate hearing in January 2024, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Snap CEO Evan Spiegel apologized to parents whose children have been harmed by social media. The companies face growing legal pressure. In addition to the case in Northern California, the four companies are defendants in a consolidated lawsuit in Southern California alleging they have harmed youth mental health; that trial is scheduled for January. The companies similarly reject these allegations, citing protections under Section 230—a law that shields tech companies from liability for user posts. Each of the four companies has implemented a range of youth safety and parental control features over the past few years, such as “take a break” reminders, content restrictions for young users, and default privacy settings. However, Friday’s lawsuit claims that, in some cases at least, the companies know about the limited effectiveness of these tools. “Won’t that look like the tobacco companies?” The memo references internal documents from the tech companies indicating that researchers voiced concerns about addiction and other mental health risks for young users, and it accuses the companies of concealing or downplaying these findings. As an example, it cites a study Meta planned to conduct in 2019 in partnership with Nielsen, in which some users were asked to quit Facebook and Instagram for a month and keep a diary of how they felt afterward. But after “pilot tests” of the study showed that users who paused Facebook use for just a week “reported a decrease in feelings of depression, anxiety, loneliness, and social comparison,” Meta allegedly scrapped the research project. “One Meta employee warned, ‘If the results are bad, and we don’t publish them, and they leak out, won’t that look like tobacco companies doing research knowing cigarettes are bad, and then hiding that information?’” the memo states, citing an internal conversation. Meta spokesperson Andy Stone said the lawsuit misinterprets the study and Meta’s decision to discontinue it. Stone said in an X post that Meta researchers were trying to design a study to overcome participants’ “expectancy effects”—where users’ preconceptions about the platform influenced their responses. But the pilot tests showed the study’s design failed to account for this, “so the study did not move forward.” In a separate statement regarding the memo, Stone said: “We strongly disagree with these allegations, which rely on out-of-context quotes and flawed opinions in an effort to present a deliberately misleading picture. The full picture will show that for over a decade, we have listened to parents, researched the most important issues, and made real changes to protect teens—such as introducing teen accounts with built-in protections and giving parents tools to manage their children’s experience. We are proud of the progress we have made and stand by our position.”
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