


Social media parent companies Meta, Alphabet, Snap Inc., and ByteDance are facing a lawsuit from two tribal nations for their alleged contribution to Native youth suicides.
The Spirit Lake Tribe in North Dakota and the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin are blaming the use of Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, and YouTube for altering Native youth’s propensity to attempt suicide, which is 3.5 times higher than the U.S. national average, per the complaint. The lawsuit is seeking compensatory damages due to what it claims is a “skewed and often distorted environment” within the digital platforms that is negatively affecting youth.
“Enough is enough. Endless scrolling is rewiring our teenagers’ brains,” Menominee Chairwoman Gena Kakkak said in a statement. “We are demanding these social media corporations take responsibility for intentionally creating dangerous features that ramp up the compulsive use of social media by the youth on our Reservation.”
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This lawsuit, filed with the firm Robins Kaplan, comes as over 140 school districts and 42 states have filed similar complaints against Meta in particular for being an addictive nuisance. U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers ruled last year that the platforms are not protected by lawsuits, such as these via Section 230, the law that eliminates civil and state liability for digital hosts when it comes to third-party posts.
Alphabet has claimed to be in collaboration with mental health experts for best practices. Snap Inc. has also offered alternate feeds for its young users. Meta has installed additional censoring measures to stop teenage users from receiving and sending nude images on Instagram’s policy surrounding nudity.