Sarah Wynn-Williams—Meta whistleblower and author of the recently released book “Careless People”—testified before the U.S. Senate April 9 about many of the company’s negative business practices, including the deliberate targeting of teens with advertisements tailored to specific emotional states. Wynn-Williams served as Director of Global Public Policy at Facebook for seven years from 2010-2017.

Read more on Wynn-Williams’ testimony and the devastating effect she alleges Meta had on teen mental health.

Lexi Hazam of Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP and Previn Warren of Motley Rice LLC—court-appointed lead plaintiffs' counsel in In Re: Social Media Adolescent Addiction/Personal Injury Products Liability Litigation—issued the following statement in response to the testimony.

“Today’s hearing makes one thing clear: Meta has consistently prioritized profits over the safety of Facebook and Instagram users. As whistleblower Sarah Wynn-Williams testified, Meta deliberately engaged in emotional targeting of teenage users—using that deeply personal data to fuel its advertising revenue.  Ms. Wynn-Williams testified that Meta saw minors as ‘vulnerable yet very valuable’ users.
 

This is the exact kind of exploitative, profit-driven design that lies at the core of our case.
 

We will continue to move forward in litigation to uncover how Meta endangered young people and hold them accountable for the harm they’ve caused to families, schools, and communities across the country.”

Our social media litigation experience

Motley Rice attorneys fought for decades for families and people. Our experience includes representing people dealing with tech companies and the harm they’ve caused. Our attorneys represent teenage victims and their families in litigation alleging harm caused by the addictive nature of social media platforms as well as school districts dealing with the ramifications of social media addiction in the educational environment. Our attorneys are also at the forefront of a shareholder derivative suit alleging members of the Meta board failed to act on reports of human trafficking on the platform as well as legal action looking into Meta’s Pixel product harvesting medical data from users who never even had a Facebook account.

Call Attorney Previn Warren at 1.202.386.9610 or complete this form to learn more about your options in social media litigation.