Brazil institute sues social media giants for $525 million over excessive use by minors

By Ricardo Brito

BRASILIA (Reuters) – Brazil’s Collective Defense Institute has filed two lawsuits demanding 3 billion reais ($525.27 million) from the Brazilian units of TikTok, Kwai and Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:) for allegedly failing to create mechanisms to prevent indiscriminate use of these social media platforms by minors, according to initial petitions seen by Reuters.

WHY IT’S IMPORTANT

Social media regulation has become a hot topic in Latin America’s largest country after a months-long feud between X owner Elon Musk and a Brazilian Supreme Court justice resulted in the company paying hefty fines. 

DETAILS

In the lawsuits, the organization demands the courts, both in the state of Minas Gerais, to order the companies to create clear data protection mechanisms and issue warnings about the risks to children’s and teenagers’ mental health due to platform addiction.

The lawsuits are based on a series of studies on the possible damage caused by unsupervised use of social media, especially by children and teenagers.

KEY QUOTE

“It is urgent that measures be adopted in order to change the way the algorithm works, the processing of data from users under 18, and the way in which teenagers aged 13 and over are supervised and their accounts created, in order to ensure a safer, healthier experience … as is already the case in developed countries,” said lawyer Lillian Salgado, one of the plaintiffs.

THE RESPONSE

Meta Platforms said in a statement that it wants “young people to have safe and age-appropriate experiences on our apps, and we have been working on these issues for over a decade, developing more than 50 tools, resources, and features to support teens and their guardians.”

The company, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, also said it had recently announced a new “Teen Account” on Instagram, which will arrive in Brazil soon and promises to automatically limit the accounts teenagers can see and who may contact them.

TikTok said it had not received any notice about the case, while Kwai did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

($1 = 5.7113 reais)