Is Instagram Designed to Be Addictive? Supreme Court Rejects Meta’s Appeal

The Supreme Court rejected Meta Platforms’ attempt to block a lawsuit from Vermont’s attorney general accusing the company of designing the social media app Instagram to be addictive for young users.

Vermont Attorney General Charity Clark, a Democrat, sued Meta in 2023, alleging violations of the state’s consumer protection laws. Meta sought to have the case dismissed, arguing that allowing the case to proceed in Vermont violates its right to due process under the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment, because it could subject the company to similar legal challenges in all 50 states.

Clark’s lawsuit forms part of a coordinated effort involving 42 state attorneys general filing enforcement actions in state and federal courts across the country.

The Vermont Supreme Court rejected Meta’s claim last year, noting that because the state sued Meta for allegedly pushing an addictive program on minors and lying to users about it, any due process concerns have been “clearly extinguished.”

“Instagram’s harm to teens, and particularly girls and young women, is well-documented,” Clark said in an October 2023 statement on the lawsuit. “But Meta has denied and downplayed these harmful impacts for continued profits. Meta knowingly designed and developed Instagram features to exploit teens’ vulnerabilities to maximize revenue. This is reprehensible and a violation of Vermont’s Consumer Protection Act. This lawsuit aims to hold Meta accountable.”

Meta, in asking the Supreme Court to take the case, stated, “The complaint alleges that Meta violated Vermont law by ‘designing’ Instagram to be addictive, but there is no allegation that Meta ‘designed’ Instagram in Vermont or with features in any way unique to or targeted at Vermont.”

A Massachusetts court rejected last month Meta’s attempt to block a similar youth addiction lawsuit from the Bay State’s attorney general.

A New Mexico jury ordered the company to pay $375 million in civil penalties in March, after the state’s attorney general accused Meta of misleading users about the safety of Facebook and Instagram and of enabling child sexual exploitation on the platforms.

A separate jury in Los Angeles found Meta and Alphabet’s Google negligent for designing social media platforms that are harmful to young people, awarding $6 million in March to a 20-year-old woman who said she became addicted to social media as a child.

Meta also settled a lawsuit last month after a Kentucky school district sued, seeking to make the company pay for costs associated with combating a mental health crisis allegedly fueled by its platforms.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg pushed back on the addiction claims in testimony to the Los Angeles jury in February.

When asked whether he believes people tend to use something if it’s addictive, he said, “I’m not sure what to say to that. I don’t think that applies here.”