Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is set to make a case against personal liability in the two dozen lawsuits that, in part, blame him for Instagram and Facebook addiction, Bloomberg reported Friday.
Zuckerberg is seeking to be dismissed as a personal defendant before a federal judge in Oakland, California, on Friday, according to the report.
A ruling against Zuckerberg could open the floodgates on claims against other CEOs in personal injury litigation, Bloomberg reported. Litigation against Meta would continue even if Judge Yvonne Gonzales Rogers rules that Zuckerberg cannot be held personally liable. Zuckerberg's attorneys will argue that he shouldn't be personally accountable given the multi-layered process of decision-making at a large company.
More than 1,000 lawsuits accuse Meta — and other big tech companies — of addicting millions of children to their platforms, damaging their mental health. The lawsuits allege that children suffered negative physical, mental and emotional health effects from social media use including anxiety, depression, and occasionally suicide.
Alphabet Inc.'s Google, ByteDance Ltd.'s TikTok, and Snap Inc. are also named in the lawsuits.
Allegations against Zuckerberg claim he ignored warnings that Instagram and Facebook weren't healthy for children and publicly stated the opposite was true.
"With great power comes great responsibility," plaintiffs' lawyers said in a court filing, quoting Spider-Man, Bloomberg reported. "Unfortunately, Mr. Zuckerberg has not lived up to that maxim."
Zuckerberg apologized to families who attended a Senate hearing he testified at last month and were representing their children harmed by social media.
"I'm sorry for everything you have all been through. No one should go through the things that your families have suffered and this is why we invest so much and we are going to continue doing industry-wide efforts to make sure no one has to go through the things your families have had to suffer," he said.
Information from Reuters was used in this report.
Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
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