- Zuckerberg avoided personal responsibility in 25 cases accusing Meta of fueling social media addiction.
- The judge granted his motion to dismiss Monday, but the case against Meta still stands.
- The ruling found that Zuckerberg’s role as CEO of Meta was not sufficient grounds to hold him liable.
A judge has granted Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s motion to dismiss 25 cases alleging he was personally responsible for fueling social media addiction through Instagram and Facebook.
The ruling Monday by U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers exempted Zuckerberg from being held personally liable while the case against Meta remains pending.
The complaints filed sought to hold Zuckerberg personally responsible for keeping children addicted to Meta products. They alleged that Meta’s CEO controlled design decisions targeting higher user engagement and accused him of ignoring warnings that his platforms were unsafe for children.
The judge said Zuckerberg could not be held liable simply because he plays a public role at Meta. The ruling aligns with the legal approach that executives are generally shielded from personal liability.
“Plaintiffs’ theory would reverse state requirements for ‘confidential’ or ‘special’ relationships by creating a disclosure obligation for anyone recognizable to the public. The Court will not accept such a novel approach here,” Rogers ruled .
Rogers is also overseeing hundreds of other lawsuits against social media companies, including Alphabet, Bytedance and Snap, which accuse the platforms of negatively affecting children’s mental and physical health due to their addiction to social media, according to Reuters.
Meta is facing lawsuits from two tribal nations, which accuse the company, along with Google, TikTok and Snapchat, of fostering social media addiction. They accuse social media companies of contributing to high suicide rates by deliberately getting children addicted to these platforms.
businessinsider
