Pension and investment funds sued Meta in the United States for “turning a blind eye” to human trafficking and crimes against minors occurring on Facebook and Instagram.
“Over the past decade, Meta’s apps aided, abetted and facilitated the work of criminals responsible for pimping, human trafficking and crimes against minors occurring on a large scale on the California group’s platforms,” says a complaint filed Monday in a Delaware court.
“Substantial evidence shows that the board of directors closed its eyes despite its knowledge (…) of this rapidly expanding phenomenon,” the plaintiffs claim.
Mark Zuckerberg, head of Meta and majority shareholder, is the main target of the lawsuit.
Contacted by AFP, spokesman Andy Stone assured that Meta “clearly prohibits the exploitation of human beings and the sexual exploitation of children”, and that the lawsuits do not reflect the firm’s “efforts” to “fight against this type of activity”.
But the lawsuit asserts that Meta’s board of directors “failed to explain how it seeks to eradicate the problem,” so the only “logical conclusion” is that it “consciously decided to allow Meta’s platforms to promote and facilitate” these traffics.
Meta, parent company of Facebook and Instagram, faces numerous allegations, particularly about affecting the mental health of children and adolescents.
