Nate Raymond
(Reuters) – Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:) CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Monday won some claims in a dozen lawsuits accusing him of hiding from the public that Facebook and Instagram are harmful to children.
The decision by U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers (NYSE:) in Oakland, California, comes as the result of an extensive lawsuit in which children have filed hundreds of lawsuits accusing Meta and other social media companies of addicting them to their platforms .
Twenty-five of the cases seek to hold Zuckerberg personally accountable, saying Meta’s billionaire founder misrepresented the safety of the platforms despite repeated warnings that they were unsuitable for children.
The plaintiffs argued that his public profile and outsized role as the “trusted voice on all things Meta” imposes on Zuckerberg a duty under several state laws to speak fully and truthfully about the risks his products pose to children.
But Rogers said the plaintiffs cannot rely on Zuckerberg’s comparative knowledge of Meta’s products to prove that he personally owes such a duty to each plaintiff. Such a decision, she said, would create “a duty of disclosure for anyone known to the public.”
“The court will not support this new approach,” she said.
Meta, which remains a defendant, declined to comment. The company denies wrongdoing.
Hundreds of lawsuits are pending before Rogers filed on behalf of individual children against Meta and other social media companies, including Alphabet (NASDAQ:), which operates Google and YouTube; ByteDance, which operates TikTok; and Snap, which operates Snapchat.
The lawsuits say children have suffered physical, mental and emotional harm from social media use, including anxiety, depression and even suicide.
The lawsuit seeks damages and an end to practices the defendants believe are harmful. Several states and school districts have also filed lawsuits against Meta that are still pending.