Meta Platforms said on Thursday it is taking down ads that appeared on Facebook and Instagram and were aimed at recruiting plaintiffs for ongoing lawsuits accusing social media companies of creating addictive products that harmed young people.
In a statement, Meta spokesperson Andy Stone said the company is actively defending itself against a wave of litigation and that it will remove advertisements that seek to funnel potential claimants to law firms. "We will not allow trial lawyers to profit from our platforms while simultaneously claiming they are harmful," Stone said.
The decision to pull the ads comes in the wake of two high-profile jury verdicts that found social media companies liable for harms alleged by plaintiffs. At the end of March, a Los Angeles jury found Meta and Alphabet's Google liable in a case brought by a young woman who said she became addicted to Instagram and YouTube and subsequently suffered depression and suicidal thoughts. The jury ordered the two companies to pay a combined $6 million in damages.
In a separate trial in New Mexico that concluded one day earlier, jurors ordered Meta to pay $375 million after determining the company had misled users about the safety of its products for young people and enabled the sexual exploitation of children on its platforms.
Those verdicts sit against a much larger backdrop of litigation. More than 3,300 lawsuits alleging addiction-related harms are pending in California state court against Meta, Google, Snap Inc and ByteDance, which owns TikTok. In addition, another roughly 2,400 cases filed by individuals as well as public entities - including municipalities, states and school districts - have been centralized in federal court in California, according to court records.
The state-level cases are largely private suits by individuals who say social media use led to mental health harms. The federal docket includes claims from public entities contending the platforms harmed youth mental health and forced those entities to spend money addressing the consequences.
Law firms commonly involved in mass tort and similar litigation often operate on a contingency basis, meaning they are paid only if a plaintiff wins damages or obtains a settlement. That business model creates an incentive for firms to enroll large numbers of plaintiffs to make cases financially viable, and advertising - on television, radio and online - is a frequent channel for recruiting potential claimants who otherwise might not be aware of the litigation.
Several law firms and lead counsel in the social media litigation have placed ads on the very platforms that are being sued. Morgan & Morgan, part of the trial team that prevailed in the Los Angeles case, was among the firms that ran Facebook advertisements. A spokesperson for Morgan & Morgan did not respond to a request for comment about Meta's removal of the ads.
Other intermediaries that connect potential clients with law firms have also used social media to advertise. Tennessee-based White Heart Legal has placed advertising related to the litigation on social platforms, according to X Ante, a company that tracks mass tort advertising. White Heart Legal did not respond to a request for comment.
X Ante founder Rustin Silverstein said social media has become an increasingly common venue for advertisers seeking potential law clients in mass tort matters, though such ads represent only a share of the recruitment activity tied to these cases. Silverstein noted that 671 television ads promoting social media claims aired nationwide in March, the most in any month since July 2024, and that radio ads nearly tripled to about 20,000 following the recent verdicts.
There are also advertisements for the litigation on Google's advertising properties. Records show Social Media Victims Law Center, one of the firms leading many of these suits, has advertised on Google. Google did not respond to a question about whether it would remove the litigation-related advertisements from its platforms.
Meta and the other companies named in the suits have denied the allegations and state they take extensive steps to protect teens and young users on their platforms. The article's reporting does not expand on or evaluate the specific safety measures the companies cite; it records only that the companies have denied the allegations and assert they implement safeguards.
By removing the recruitment ads from Facebook and Instagram, Meta has sought to draw a distinction between its role as a platform and the activity of law firms using the service to solicit clients. Beyond that, the company said it will continue to mount a legal defense in courts where thousands of lawsuits remain pending.
Summary
Meta announced it will remove ads on Facebook and Instagram that were recruiting plaintiffs for litigation alleging social media platforms were engineered to be addictive to young users. The move follows jury verdicts that found social media companies liable in separate trials and comes amid thousands of pending state and federal cases. Law firms and client-referral services have used television, radio and online ads to recruit plaintiffs, while the companies under fire deny the allegations and say they have measures in place to protect youth.
Key points
- Meta is removing Facebook and Instagram ads that sought to recruit plaintiffs in lawsuits claiming social media addiction harmed young users.
- Recent jury verdicts ordered Meta and Google to pay $6 million combined in one case, and Meta $375 million in another, and thousands of related lawsuits remain pending.
- The litigation and ad activity affect the social media platform sector, legal services and advertising markets due to recruitment campaigns across television, radio and online channels.
Risks and uncertainties
- Ongoing litigation outcomes are uncertain - thousands of state and federal cases remain pending and jury verdicts vary by jurisdiction, affecting legal exposure for the companies involved.
- Advertising channels are actively being used to recruit plaintiffs, which could increase the number of claimants in mass litigation and influence the scale and cost of settlements or awards; this impacts the advertising and legal services sectors.
- It is unclear whether other platforms, including Google's ad properties, will take similar steps to remove recruitment ads, leaving uncertainty about the future flow of recruitment advertising on major ad networks.