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MADISON - ST. CLAIR RECORD

Thursday, November 21, 2024

Two new suits against Facebook claim unfair advertising advantage, mental health disorder in youth

Lawsuits
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Green

EAST ST. LOUIS – Two plaintiffs sued Facebook owner Meta Platforms five days apart at U.S. district court, one claiming it harms competition and one claiming it harms children. 

Attorney Kevin Green of Goldenberg Heller in Edwardsville filed a class action complaint against Meta for Metroplex Communications of Alton on July 8. 

Green alleges that Facebook misrepresents the number of users to gain an unfair advantage in the advertising market. 

Metroplex sells advertising on 94.3 FM, 107.1 FM, and 1570 AM, on a news website, in newspapers, and in Best of Edwardsville magazine. 

On July 13, attorney Peter Flowers of St. Charles, Ill. sued Meta on behalf of Caseyville resident Brianna Murden. 

At age 21, she claims Facebook and Meta’s Instagram caused her to develop mental health conditions that she struggles with to this day. 

In the Metroplex complaint, Green claims that Meta understates the numbers of duplicate accounts and false accounts. 

He also claims it overstates the number of monthly active users, the size of its audience, and the reach of its advertising campaigns. 

As of March 31, Green claims Meta estimated its adult U.S. audience between 234 million and 275 million and it estimates its audience age 13 and up is between 244 and 287 million. 

Green claims that in the last nine months Meta added language that fake accounts might have some impact on its estimates. 

He quoted a statement that when a person has more than one account and takes action on separate accounts, Meta might count the actions separately. 

He claims this constituted Meta’s first disclosure of double counting. 

He further claims Meta continues to fail to disclose whether it includes false accounts. 

He quoted Meta’s report that 11 percent of its monthly average users are duplicate accounts, and claims Meta materially understated that figure. 

He asserts that Wall Street Journal quoted an internal memo that the monthly average of American users ages 20 to 29 exceeded the total population of that age group. 

He claims Meta reported that five percent of worldwide accounts were false, yet it reported disabling 1.7 billion fake accounts in last year’s fourth quarter. 

He claims Meta’s understatements and overstatements “enabled it to obtain advertising and paid content revenue to the detriment of its competitors.’

“Meta has known these statements to be false and misleading and has intentionally and willfully continued to make them,” he claims. 

Green proposes to certify a class of all persons and entities in the U.S. that sold advertisements to third parties to display on a website or phone app. 

He claims questions of law and fact include whether Meta should disgorge profits and whether it should be enjoined from continuing to make false statements. 

Thomas Rosenfeld and Thomas Horcroft of Goldenberg Heller and Justin Gelfand, Ian Murphy and Gregory Bailey of Clayton, Mo. also represent Metroplex. 

The court clerk randomly assigned District Judge David Dugan of East St. Louis.    

In the Murden complaint, attorney Flowers claims she developed social media compulsion, eating disorders, depression, anxiety, suicidal ideas, and loss of sleep. 

Flowers claims nine of ten teens use social media platforms and the average teen uses platforms about three hours per day. 

He claims 72 percent of America’s youth use Instagram. 

He claimed Pew Research Center found 45 percent of high school students used social media daily and 24 percent were online almost constantly. 

He claims Meta assembles virtual dossiers on users covering hundreds if not thousands of data segments. 

He claims Meta intentionally maximizes screen time, “using complex algorithms designed to exploit human psychology.” 

He claims Meta operates on a proposition that intense reactions compel attention, and that it immerses users in reactive content and steers them toward the most negative content. 

“All told, Meta’s algorithm optimizes for angry, divisive, and polarizing content because it will increase its number of users and the time users stay on the platform per viewing session,” Flowers wrote. 

He claims social media induces social comparisons resulting in discrepancies between ideal self and real self. 

He claims Meta allows users to remove blemishes, make faces appear thinner, and lighten the skin tone. 

He claims minors who try to stop using Meta products experience the universal symptoms of withdrawal from any addictive substance. 

He claims Meta avoids an obligation under federal law to obtain parental consent for collection of information about children under 13. 

He claims Meta removes 20,000 such children from Facebook every day and still hasn’t remedied the problem.

He claims a large swath of parents lack context to appreciate the perils. 

He claims most adolescents own mobile devices or can obtain them to engage with social media outside their parents’ presence.    

The court clerk randomly assigned Magistrate Judge Reona Daly of Benton, who will preside unless a party objects to magistrate jurisdiction. 

If that happens, the clerk will assign a district judge.

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