A federal choose once more rejected a bid to carry Mark Zuckerberg individually liable in two dozen lawsuits accusing Meta Platforms Inc. and different social media firms of addicting kids to their merchandise.
US District Decide Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, who’s overseeing the instances, sided with the Meta chief government officer on Thursday, discovering {that a} revised criticism nonetheless wasn’t legally adequate to proceed. The choice dismisses Zuckerberg as a person defendant with out affecting claims towards Meta as an organization.
Lawsuits filed on behalf of younger folks have alleged that Zuckerberg was repeatedly warned by Meta staff that Instagram and Fb weren’t secure for youngsters however ignored the findings and selected to not share them publicly.
Holding CEOs of enormous firms personally answerable for wrongdoing is usually troublesome due to a company legislation custom of protecting executives from legal responsibility.
“Whereas potential that discovery could reveal a extra lively participation and route by Zuckerberg in Meta’s alleged fraudulent concealment, the allegations earlier than the court docket are inadequate to fulfill the usual for corporate-officer legal responsibility,” Rogers stated in her order.
The instances naming Zuckerberg are a small subset of a set of greater than 1,000 fits in state and federal courts in California by households and public faculty districts towards Meta together with Alphabet Inc.’s Google, ByteDance Ltd.’s TikTok, and Snap Inc., proprietor of the Snapchat platform. Rogers and a state choose in Los Angeles have allowed some claims to proceed towards the businesses whereas dismissing others.
The case is In Re Social Media Adolescent Dependancy/Private Harm Merchandise Legal responsibility Litigation, 22-md-03047, US District Court docket, Northern District of California (Oakland).
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