Facebook, Instagram sued over human trafficking, child abuse

A lawsuit accuses Mark Zuckerberg and other Meta Platforms Inc of failing to do enough to stop sex trafficking and child sexual exploitation on Facebook and Instagram.

The complaint by several pension and investment funds that own Meta stock said that Meta's leadership and board did not protect the company's interests by turning blind eye to systemic evidence of criminal activity.

The board's failure to explain how it tries to root out the problem is the only logical inference that the board has consciously decided to allow Meta's platforms to allow and facilitate sex human trafficking, the complaint said.

Meta rejected the basis for the lawsuit, which was filed in Delaware Chancery Court.

In a statement on Tuesday, it said that we prohibit human exploitation and child sexual exploitation in no uncertain terms. The lawsuit claims mischaracterizes our efforts to combat this type of activity. We want to prevent people from using our platform to exploit others. In 2019, Zuckerberg, Meta's billionaire co-founder and chief executive, told Congress that child exploitation was one of the most serious threats we focus on. Meta, based in Menlo Park, California, has faced accusations that its platforms are a haven for sexual misconduct.

In June 2021, the Texas Supreme Court allowed three people who became involved with their abusers through Facebook to bring a lawsuit, saying Facebook was not a lawless no-man's land immune from liability for human trafficking.

The families of teen and younger children who claimed to suffer mental health problems by becoming addicted to Facebook and Instagram is one of the hundreds of lawsuits that have been brought by Meta. Some school districts have also filed lawsuits over the problem.

The lawsuit is about a derivative case in which shareholders sue officers and directors who allegedly breached their duties.

Damages are paid to the company, often by the officers and directors' insurers, rather than to shareholders.

The case is the Employees' Retirement System of the State of Rhode Island et al v Zuckerberg et al, Delaware Chancery Court, No.