New York City is taking on some of the biggest names in tech.
In a 327-page lawsuit filed Wednesday in the Manhattan federal court, the city alleged that Meta, Alphabet, Snap, and ByteDance created a “public nuisance” and a “youth mental health crisis” by intentionally exploiting the psychology of young users to keep them hooked.
The city alleged in the complaint that the platforms’ algorithms are designed to maximize engagement at the expense of children’s mental health, contributing to sleep loss, chronic absenteeism, and risky behavior such as “subway surfing,” meaning riding on top of moving trains. All these behaviors, the complaint said, are heavily costing schools, educators, and the public health system.
“Social media use by teens has recently been implicated in alarming increases in dangerous and even deadly off-campus activity in New York City,” the lawsuit alleges. “One such dangerous type of conduct known to be spreading through viral social media posts is ‘subway surfing.'”
The lawsuit cited data from the NYC Police Department that at least 16 teens have died in such incidents since 2023, including two girls aged 12 and 13, who died this month.
“Defendants should be held to account for the harms their conduct has inflicted on New York City youth and on the NYC Plaintiffs’ educational and public health ecosystems,” the plaintiffs wrote in the complaint. “As it stands now, NYC Plaintiffs are left to abate the nuisance and foot the bill.”
The NYC Mayor’s office, Meta, TikTok, and Snapchat did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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The NYC Law Department said in a statement to Business Insider that social media has resulted in “substantial interference” with school district operations and public hospitals that provide mental health services to youth.
The City School District of the City of New York and New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation are also plaintiffs in the case. The NYC’s health commissioner said social media was a public health hazard in January 2024.
Among the defendants, Meta is the owner of Facebook and Instagram, Snap runs Snapchat, and Alphabet owns Google and YouTube. The Trump administration is facilitating a deal for ByteDance to sell TikTok, but the Chinese company still owns the platform as of now.
“These lawsuits fundamentally misunderstand how YouTube works and the allegations are simply not true,” José Castañeda, a Google spokesperson, told Business Insider. “YouTube is a streaming service where people come to watch everything from live sports, to podcasts to their favorite creators, primarily on TV screens, not a social network where people go to catch up with friends.”
Owners of social media giants have previously been in the crosshairs of lawmakers and brought into Senate hearings over allegations of harming and exploiting children. In 2024, Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, faced a room full of families who said their children had suffered harm from social media.
NYC withdrew from a similar litigation announced by Mayor Eric Adams in February 2024, which was pending in California state courts, so that it could join the new federal litigation.
