A new lawsuit filed against Meta by the state of Massachusetts claims that Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg dismissed concerns about Instagram’s features negatively impacting users’ mental health.
According to the lawsuit filed Monday in Suffolk Superior Court, Zuckerberg and other members of Meta’s leadership were asked to remove plastic surgery filters from Instagram and Facebook by 2019 because of concerns from mental health experts about the filters’ negative mental health effects may affect young users, especially women.
According to an internal email cited in the complaint, Instagram’s then-policy chief allegedly pleaded with Zuckerberg to disable the filters, writing, “We’re talking about actively encouraging young girls to be physically vulnerable,” according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit claims that Zuckerberg instead decided to allow “plastic surgery simulation camera filters” on social media platforms.
The lawsuit states, “Zuckerberg said there was a ‘clear demand’ for filters, and falsely claimed he had seen ‘no data’ suggesting filters were harmful”.
The nearly 100-page lawsuit also claims that Meta dismissed its own internal research highlighting the harmful and addictive nature of its platforms.