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A top lawyer for Meta says the company will “dismiss” the complaints after two judges found it liable to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in damages.
Judges in California and New Mexico recently found Meta liable for designing addictive platforms and violating consumer protection laws. Meta plans to appeal the decisions.
“We respectfully disagree with these decisions,” said CJ Mahoney, Meta’s chief legal officer, on “Saturday America.”
“We think they are vulnerable to appeals, and we will pursue those appeals vigorously,” he added.
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Family members of the victims spoke to reporters outside the Los Angeles Superior Court on March 25 in Los Angeles after a judge found Meta and YouTube negligent in a lawsuit alleging their platforms influenced harmful behavior among young users. (Kayla Bartkowski/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
On Wednesday, a Los Angeles judge found Meta and Google liable for designing their products to make young people addicted. Jurors awarded the plaintiff $6 million after a nine-day trial. The complainant, known as KGM, testified that she became addicted to social media at a young age and that it worsened her mental health.
Mahoney said that Meta should not be blamed for the mental problems of young people.
“We do not believe that our platform is dealing with the mental health problem of young people in this country,” he said.
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“It’s not like that [going to] it was the day plaintiff’s lawyers wanted it to be,” added Mahoney.
Plaintiffs’ attorney Mark Lanier spoke to reporters outside the Los Angeles Superior Court on March 25 in Los Angeles after a judge found Meta and YouTube negligent in a lawsuit alleging their platforms contributed to harmful behavior among young users. (Kayla Bartkowski/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
Instead, he said that parents and schools must take responsibility for children’s use of social media and that blaming technology companies simplifies the situation.
“Trying to lump all of this into one telecommunications company or even the technology industry, I think, is unhelpfully simplifying the problem,” he added.
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Mark Lanier, the plaintiff’s lead attorney, called the decision a major victory.
“The simple truth of the matter is, if we don’t hold these companies accountable for deliberately luring children onto their platforms to enrich their coffers, no one will,” he said Friday on “Fox & Friends.”
Families and supporters react outside Los Angeles Superior Court on March 25 in Los Angeles after a judge found Meta and YouTube negligent in a lawsuit that claimed their platforms contributed to harmful behavior among young users. (Kayla Bartkowski/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
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Lanier noted that while it’s good for social media companies to want to grow their user base, it can’t come at “the expense of our children.”
The California ruling came just days after a New Mexico jury also found Meta guilty of harming the mental health of children and endangering their safety. Meta must pay $375 million in damages.
Platforms TikTok and Snap were defendants in the California lawsuit but settled before the case went to a jury.
The full interview with Meta Chief Legal Officer CJ Mahoney will air on “Saturday in America” at 10 a.m. ET.
