Meta has lobbied U.S. lawmakers for legal immunity from lawsuits alleging harm to children on its social media platforms. like Facebook and Instagram, according to a report.
This comes as Meta faces a wave of litigation over youth safety, including thousands of similar claims consolidated in California state courts and separate lawsuits filed by states and school districts. Meta and Google, which owns YouTube, were awarded a total of $6 million in damages after a Los Angeles jury found them negligent in a landmark case alleging that Instagram and YouTube were designed in a way that harmed a young user. Both companies have announced their intention to appeal.
If language such as Meta’s proposal is adopted by lawmakers and signed into law as part of the Children Online Safety Act (KOSA) currently under consideration in the Senate, the provision could weaken ongoing and future complaints against Meta and other social media platforms regarding child safety.
Lawmakers have not said they would be willing to adopt this language, but the lobbying effort shows the type of legal protections Meta is seeking amid government attempts to regulate online platforms.
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Meta has lobbied U.S. lawmakers for legal immunity from lawsuits alleging harm to children on its social media platforms. (Arda Kucukkaya/Anadolu via Getty Images / Getty Images)
The proposed text would make online companies “immune from suit or liability under state law with respect to all claims for loss caused by, arising out of, relating to, or resulting from the safety or privacy of persons under eighteen years of age online or otherwise relating to the provisions” of KOSA, according to Reuters.
The proposal appears alongside language intended to make the federal measure override state laws on children’s online safety and privacy.
Meta spokeswoman Stephanie Otway told Reuters the provision “does not extinguish existing lawsuits nor does it represent complete immunity.”
“Instead, it establishes uniform national standards for youth online safety, ensuring that these critical issues are governed by comprehensive federal legislation, not by plaintiffs’ attorneys or disparate state legislation,” she said.
But Julia Duncan of the American Association for Justice, a group that represents trial lawyers, said that if the provision were to pass, it would end all pending lawsuits when the law takes effect.
This provision could undermine the thousands of complaints filed against Meta and other social media platforms regarding child safety. (David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images / Getty Images)
“The language is a pretty clear immunity against every parent, every school district, seeking to hold any AI or social media company responsible for harm” to children, Duncan said. “There is no other way to read this language.”
Meta offered the language in exchange for abandoning his efforts to oppose KOSA, a source told Reuters.
KOSA, sponsored by Sens. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., would need social media companies take measures to prevent certain harms caused to minors, including compulsive use of their platforms.
The measure is now the subject of negotiations between Blackburn and the White House to attach a provision to child online safety bills that would preempt some state laws regarding AI.
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Meta offered this language in exchange for abandoning his efforts to oppose KOSA. ((Photo illustration by Onur Dogman/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images) / Getty Images)
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“We have not seen this proposed language and we will never consider it,” a spokesperson for the Republican senator told Reuters.
According to the bill, technology companies Caution should be exercised in adding specific features such as infinite scrolling, activity notifications, and appearance-changing photography filters.
A woman won a lawsuit earlier this year against Meta and Google, which owns YouTube, after its lawyers successfully argued that the companies were aware that these features were addictive and harmful to young people. Tech companies plan to appeal the decision.
KOSA passed the Senate in 2024 before failing in the House. The measure was reintroduced this year with the support of Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.
Reuters contributed to this report.