Meta and its social media platforms Facebook and Instagram are facing a class action lawsuit in Australia over allegations that addictive design features are harming children and teenagers.
The suit filed in the Federal Court on behalf of eight applicants seeks to recover compensation for Facebook and Instagram users who were exposed to harmful content or developed an addiction to social media, law firm Minter Ellison and Litigation Lending said in a statement.
The Federal Court in Sydney issued a suppression order on Monday stopping publication of details of the claim and the identity of the applicants, court documents show.
"We are aware of this claim and we will defend ourselves vigorously," a Meta spokesperson said in a statement.
Litigation Lending Services said it was funding the class action for Australian families who "would have no practical means of pursuing these claims against a global technology giant".
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"This proceeding raises important questions about the design and operation of social media platforms and their impact on children and teenagers in Australia," Minter Ellison partner William Nolan said in a statement.
The lawsuit comes amid rising tensions between Australia and big tech after a world-first ban on social media for children under 16, and newly proposed rules that could let users switch off algorithm-driven content on their feeds.
In August, Meta agreed to pay up to US$17.7 billion (roughly $25 billion) in the United States to settle claims that it deliberately engineered its platforms to hook young users.
News of the Australian lawsuit came shortly after a judge in the US state of New Mexico ordered Meta Platforms to pay US$25 billion ($35.2 billion) after a jury found the company had misled consumers in a case arising from allegations that a political consulting firm involved in US President Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign obtained data from millions of Facebook users without their consent.
New Mexico attorney general Raúl Torrez said it was one of the largest, if not the largest, single state verdict against a company in US history.
"Facebook's wrongdoing — over the course of years and systematically broadcast to the public — goes to the heart of Facebook's core business practices," Judge Francis Mathew wrote in his order following the verdict.
Mathew found that a penalty of more than $219 billion was warranted, based on state law, but he reduced the figure to $25 billion.
In a statement, CJ Mahoney, Meta's chief legal officer, said the company is confident it will win on appeal.
"This ruling, and the Attorney General's approach to this enforcement, makes it all but impossible to do business in the state of New Mexico," Mahoney said.
"At its core, this lawsuit seeks to impose a tax on speech to enforce new rules for what people can say online."
The company had previously said a penalty in the billions of dollars risked violating its constitutional rights to due process and protection from excessive fines.
