FOX Business correspondent Madison Alworth discusses allegations against Meta on “Evening Edit” that the company’s social media platforms concealed evidence of harm and ignored opportunities to put safeguards in place.
This story discusses suicide. If you or someone you know is considering suicide, please contact the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988 or 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
Two families have filed wrongful death lawsuits against Mehta over their son’s suicide, alleging the tech giant failed to add adequate safeguards to prevent targeted sextortion schemes. Teens on Instagram.
Tricia Maciejewski of Pennsylvania and Rosalind Downey and Mark Downey of Scotland filed the lawsuit on Wednesday, alleging that their sons fell into the same sextortion scheme. Sextortion involves a stranger sending messages to a teenager on social media pretending to be a romantic interest before asking for nude photos. The stranger then threatens to share the image with friends and family unless the victim shares more images or sends money.
own meta Instagram and Facebookis facing at least four other sextortion-related lawsuits, alleging that Instagram has ignored complaints about the system for years.
In the latest lawsuit, the families allege that their son’s death was “a foreseeable result of Meta’s design decisions and repeated refusal to implement affordable, available and identified safety features, as Meta prioritized user engagement over user safety.”
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Two families have filed wrongful death lawsuits against Mehta over their son’s suicide. (Matt Cardy/Getty Images/Getty Images)
Maciejewski’s 13-year-old son, Levi, committed suicide in 2024, and Downey’s 16-year-old son, Murray, took his own life in 2023. Both teenage boys were victims of an Instagram sextortion scheme.
The families claim that Meta knew its recommendation system was linking children to potential predators and that Meta failed to adequately address the issue.
The plaintiffs cited a 2022 internal audit that found Instagram’s “Accounts to Follow” tool suggested 1.4 million accounts to teenage users in a single day that may be engaging in inappropriate interactions with minors.
Metasafety researchers recommended in 2019 that the company make all teen accounts private by default, but the company rejected the idea a year later, according to the complaint.
In 2021, Meta announced new restrictions on direct messaging that teens and adults don’t comply with, but the lawsuit alleges the changes were flawed, did not represent “true default settings,” and applied only to new teen accounts.
Levi Maciejewski, 13, and Murray Downey, 16, victims of a sextortion scheme, died by suicide. (Getty Images/Getty Images)
Families said Mehta did not apply full “default private” settings or other safeguards to the teens’ accounts until late last year after their children’s deaths.
Matthew Bergman, founding attorney at the Social Media Victims Law Center, which is representing the family, said in a statement: “Meth’s secret is now out. He knew for years that Instagram was a hunting ground for predators, and yet he chose to protect his engagement metrics over the lives of his children.”
“The conscious decision to connect random strangers to children has victimized the sons and daughters of families and turned Instagram into a hub for sextortion-related youth suicides,” he continued. “If they had chosen to follow their own internal recommendations, they could have saved countless lives.”
The company on Wednesday did not directly address the lawsuit’s allegations, but emphasized that it is working to stop sextortion scammers.
“Sexual coercion is a horrific crime,” a company spokesperson said in a statement. “We are supporting law enforcement in prosecuting the criminals behind it, and we continue to fight them on many fronts on the app.”
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Mehta said he is working to stop sextortion scammers. (Nicolas Cocobris/NurPhoto via Getty Images/Getty Images)
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“We are working to prevent accounts that exhibit suspicious behavior from following and recommending teens,” the statement added. “We also take other precautions, such as blurring sensitive images sent in DMs, reminding teens of the risks of sharing images, and letting them know when they’re chatting with someone who may be in another country.”
Starting in 2021, Meta reiterated that it is offering private accounts to teens under 16 when they sign up, even though the lawsuit alleges the company did not automatically offer private accounts until last year.
Instagram has introduced several changes aimed at teenagers in recent years, aimed at curbing sextortion. the lawsuit alleges They argued that the change was too late and that Instagram should be held responsible for the suicides of two teenagers.
