The tech giant wants to sidestep responsibility for the harm its social media platforms have allegedly contributed to.
Meta has lobbied the US Congress to try and gain legal immunity against child-safety lawsuits tied to its platforms including Instagram and Facebook.
The social media giant is facing thousands of lawsuits from school districts, families, and young users in the US, accusing the company of risking user safety to fuel its algorithm.
According to Reuters, if lawmakers adopt the proposed legislative language into law as part of the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) – currently being reviewed in the US Senate – it could undermine thousands of lawsuits against Meta and other similar companies over harm it caused to children.
This comes after Meta and YouTube were ordered to pay $6m in damages after a jury found that its platforms were designed to be ‘addictive’. This was the first case at trial, with thousands more similar child safety suits set to follow.
The proposed language, seen by Reuters, would pre-empt any state laws on child online safety and privacy, making online platforms “immune from suit or liability under state law with respect to all claims for loss caused by, arising out of, relating to, or resulting from the safety or privacy of individuals under the age of eighteen online or otherwise related to the provisions” of KOSA.
Meta spokesperson Stephanie Otway told the publication the provision “does not extinguish existing lawsuits, nor does it represent blanket immunity”.
“Instead, it establishes uniform national standards for online youth safety, ensuring these critical issues are governed by comprehensive federal legislation, not plaintiffs’ lawyers or patchwork state legislation,” she said.
Meta has reportedly proposed this amended legal language in return for dropping its opposition to the KOSA bill – which would require platforms to exercise care in implementing specific features which are thought to cause harm or addiction in young people, like activity notifications, infinite scrolling, and appearance altering photo filters.
Why this matters to marketers
These lawsuits come as more and more countries look to impose restrictions on young people using social media platforms.
The UK is among the latest to announce a legislative ban on under-16s using platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, Instragram, Snapchat and X.
Aside from the direct financial impact on the big tech firms, these lawsuits will see dramatic shifts in algorithms resulting in fewer people watching content pushed out by marketing teams.
As Mike Craddock, co-founder and chief executive at social media agency NewGen, previously told Affiliate Leaders: “[…] Brands that rely on younger audiences could see some impact on reach, views and trend momentum. A lot of content travels because young people are fast to pick things up, remix them, comment on them and push them into the wider culture.
“So if access tightens, brands may need to rethink who they’re really speaking to, where their audience actually is, and how much they rely on younger users to create that initial spark.”
