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NEW YORK — New York City has filed a sweeping lawsuit accusing Facebook, Google, Snapchat, TikTok, and other major online platforms of contributing to a youth mental health crisis by making their products addictive to children.
The 327-page complaint, filed Wednesday in Manhattan federal court, seeks damages from Meta Platforms, owner of Facebook and Instagram; Alphabet, owner of Google and YouTube; Snap Inc., which operates Snapchat; and ByteDance, parent company of TikTok. The city accuses the companies of gross negligence and creating a public nuisance.
The lawsuit aligns New York City with a growing wave of state and local governments, school districts, and individuals involved in roughly 2,050 similar cases consolidated in federal court in Oakland, California. With a population of 8.48 million residents, including 1.8 million minors, New York City is among the largest plaintiffs in the national litigation. The city’s school system and healthcare agencies are also listed as plaintiffs.
Google spokesperson Jose Castaneda pushed back on the claims, saying that allegations involving YouTube are “simply not true,” noting that “it is a streaming service and not a social network where people catch up with friends.”
The other defendants did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
A spokesperson for New York City’s law department said the city withdrew from a separate lawsuit announced by Mayor Eric Adams in February 2024 in California state court so it could instead join the consolidated federal case.
Platforms Accused of Exploiting Youth Behavior
The complaint alleges that the defendants “designed their platforms to exploit the psychology and neurophysiology of youth” to encourage compulsive use and maximize profits.
It cites data showing that 77.3% of New York City high school students — and 82.1% of girls — report spending three or more hours daily on screens, including phones, computers, and televisions. The city claims such heavy use has led to lost sleep, chronic school absences, and worsening mental health.
In January 2024, the city’s health commissioner declared social media a public health hazard, noting that the city and its schools have been forced to spend increasing taxpayer funds to address the mounting youth mental health crisis.
Link to Dangerous Trends
The complaint also ties social media use to a surge in “subway surfing” — the dangerous trend of riding on top of or clinging to the sides of moving subway cars. Since 2023, at least 16 people have died while subway surfing, including two girls aged 12 and 13 this month, according to police data.
“Defendants should be held to account for the harms their conduct has inflicted,” the city said in the filing. “As it stands now, (the) plaintiffs are left to abate the nuisance and foot the bill.”
