Ohio’s Attorney General filed a lawsuit against Meta, formerly known as Facebook, on Monday, accusing the company of violating federal securities law by failing to disclose internal research about the platforms harmful effects on children to their investors.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System and Facebook investors, who collectively lost more than $100 billion in market share since Frances Haugen first leaked internal documents to the Wall Street Journal.
“Facebook said it was looking out for our children and weeding out online trolls, but in reality was creating misery and divisiveness for profit.”We are not people to Mark Zuckerberg, we are the product and we are being used against each other out of greed,” said the Attorney General.
He added that he hopes to recover the pension fund’s losses with the lawsuit as well as ensuring that the company “makes significant reforms” to avoid misleading the public again.
A Facebook representative said: “This suit is without merit and we will defend ourselves vigorously.”
The lawsuit is likely only the first of many lawsuits against Facebook since Haugen first leaked documents that proved that Facebook knew that its products were unhealthy and potentially dangerous for teenaged users but undermined efforts to counteract that harm.
Haugen testified before Congress that the company chooses ” profits over safety.”
The company has maintained that the documents do not paint a complete picture of Meta and its safety efforts. Its share price has fallen roughly 9% since the first “Facebook Papers” reports began to publish in September.
There could also be more lawsuits as the court could force Meta to make more internal documents public, which could “yield even more problematic evidence for Facebook”.
Sources: Business Insider, Yahoo
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