Florida wants Meta to remove users under 14, limit teens to two hours of daily use, and disable features such as autoplay and infinite scroll while its lawsuit continues.
Florida is asking a state court to impose stricter restrictions on Facebook and Instagram for young users while its lawsuit against Meta Platforms continues.
In a filing in Pasco County court, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier asked for a temporary injunction requiring Meta to identify and remove users under 14 from the platforms in the state. The request also seeks to limit teenagers to two hours of daily use across Meta’s apps and disable features including autoplay and infinite scroll.
Florida wants the measures to take effect immediately and remain in place while the lawsuit proceeds.
Florida Seeks Tougher Teen Controls
The proposed restrictions go beyond the measures Meta agreed to in a recent settlement with most other US states.
Florida is also asking the court to prevent teens from continuing to use messaging features after reaching their daily time limit and to prohibit Meta from showing advertisements to them.
Uthmeier’s office argued that the changes should be technically possible because Meta has already agreed to introduce other protections for teenage users under its settlement with 48 states and Washington, DC.
Florida’s lawsuit accuses Meta of knowingly designing its platforms to be addictive for young users and misleading consumers about their safety. Meta has denied wrongdoing.
Meta Calls Florida Lawsuit Meritless
Meta said Florida should instead focus on other major platforms, including YouTube and TikTok, and criticised the state’s decision to continue its case.
The company said it regretted that Florida had chosen to pursue what it called a meritless preliminary injunction several years into the litigation.
The dispute comes after Meta reached settlements in August with 48 states and Washington, DC. Under those agreements, the company agreed to pay up to $18 billion and make changes to how its platforms operate for teenage users.
Florida Attorney General Uthmeier, a Republican, chose not to join the settlement and instead continued with the state’s lawsuit.
Florida’s filing described the settlement as insufficient, arguing that the financial penalty would simply become a cost of doing business and would not prevent similar conduct in the future.
The court will now consider Florida’s request for temporary restrictions while the broader case against Meta continues.
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The Meta headquarters in Menlo Park, California.
Photographer: Benjamin Fanjoy/Bloomberg
Reuters
