Florida asks court to force Meta to change Facebook, Instagram for teens

FILE PHOTO: The logo of Meta is seen at the entrance of the company's temporary stand ahead of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland January 18, 2025. REUTERS/Yves Herman/File Photo

Oct 7 (Reuters) - Florida ⁠asked a state judge on Wednesday to order changes to Instagram and Facebook to better protect ⁠young users, pressing ahead with a lawsuit accusing parent Meta Platforms of harming teens after ‌most states resolved similar claims through a sweeping settlement.

In a filing in a Pasco County court, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier asked for a temporary injunction forcing Meta to identify and remove users in the state under the age of 14 from those platforms, ​limit teens there to two hours a day across all apps ⁠and turn off features likeautoplay and infinite ⁠scroll for them.

The filing asked that the changes be implemented immediately and be in place while the ⁠lawsuit ‌moves forward.

A Meta spokesperson in a statement said after the company's settlement with nearly every other state, Florida should focus on getting other platforms to take action.

"The attorney general should be using taxpayer ⁠resources to get YouTube and TikTok to empower parents and protect ​teens in Florida. We regret that ‌he has chosen instead to pursue a meritless preliminary injunction years into the litigation," the ⁠spokesperson said.

Florida's lawsuit against ​Meta, which accuses the company of knowingly engineering its platforms to be addictive for young users and misleading consumers about its safety, was one of dozens of similar lawsuits filed by states across the country.

In August, Metareached settlements with 48 ⁠of the other states and Washington, DC, agreeing to pay ​up to $18 billion and make changes for teen users of its platforms.

Meta has said it works hard to keep teens safe on its platforms, and the company denied wrongdoing in agreeing to settle. The total payout represents ⁠about three to four months of profit and about one month of revenue for Meta.

Uthmeier, a Republican, opted not to join the settlement and proceed with his lawsuit.

Florida said in the filing that the settlement amounted to a “mere slap on the wrist, will be cynically viewed as the cost of doing business, and in ​any event will not prevent this kind of behavior going forward.”

The changes Uthmeier's ⁠filing seeks are more stringent than those the company agreed to as part of that settlement, as they ​would cut off teens' access to messaging after their time limits ‌are hit and bar the company from showing them advertisements.

The ​changes Meta agreed to make as part of the settlement are an indication these changes are possible, Uthmeier's office argued.

(Reporting by Diana Novak Jones, Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi and Bill Berkrot)

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资料照片：2025年1月18日，在瑞士达沃斯举行的世界经济论坛（WEF）前夕，Meta公司的标志出现在该公司临时展位的入口处。路透社/Yves Herman/资料照片

10 月 7 日（路透社）——佛罗里达州周三要求州法官下令 Instagram 和 Facebook 做出改变，以更好地保护年轻用户。此前，大多数州已通过一项全面的和解协议解决了类似的索赔，佛罗里达州继续推进一项诉讼，指控其母公司 Meta Platforms 损害青少年利益。

佛罗里达州总检察长詹姆斯·乌斯迈尔向帕斯科县法院提交了一份文件，要求颁布临时禁令，强制 Meta 识别并删除该州 14 岁以下的用户，限制青少年每天在所有应用程序上使用的时间不超过两小时，并关闭自动播放和无限滚动等功能。

该文件要求立即实施这些变更，并在诉讼进行期间保持有效。

Meta 的一位发言人在一份声明中表示，在该公司与几乎所有其他州达成和解后，佛罗里达州应该集中精力促使其他平台采取行动。

发言人表示：“司法部长应该利用纳税人的资源，促使YouTube和TikTok赋予佛罗里达州的家长更多权力，保护青少年。我们感到遗憾的是，他却选择在诉讼进行数年后，寻求一项毫无根据的初步禁令。”

佛罗里达州对 Meta 提起的诉讼指控该公司明知其平台容易让年轻用户上瘾，并误导消费者，声称其平台安全可靠。这是全国各州提起的数十起类似诉讼之一。

8 月，Meta 与其余 48 个州和华盛顿特区达成和解，同意支付高达 180 亿美元的赔偿金，并对其平台上的青少年用户做出改变。

Meta公司表示，他们一直致力于保障青少年在其平台上的安全，并在同意和解时否认存在不当行为。和解金额相当于Meta公司大约三到四个月的利润和一个月的收入。

身为共和党人的乌斯迈尔选择不加入和解协议，继续进行他的诉讼。

佛罗里达州在提交的文件中表示，该和解协议“只不过是轻描淡写地惩罚一下，会被愤世嫉俗地视为做生意的代价，而且无论如何都不会阻止此类行为再次发生。”

Uthmeier 的诉讼请求所寻求的变更比该公司在和解协议中同意的变更更为严格，因为这些变更将切断青少年在时限到期后访问消息的权限，并禁止该公司向他们展示广告。

Uthmeier 的办公室辩称，Meta 同意在和解协议中做出的改变表明这些改变是可能的。

（Diana Novak Jones报道，Alexia Garamfalvi和Bill Berkrot编辑）

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