Portuguese Group Sues Social Media Giants Over Addiction

D3, a Portuguese group, has initiated four collective legal actions against major social media platforms including Alphabet’s Google, which owns YouTube, Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, and ByteDance, the owner of TikTok. The lawsuits were filed by the law firm Andersen Tax & Legal Iberia at Lisbon’s Civil Court between April and May 2023, but were disclosed only after the judicial summer break.

D3 aims to hold these platforms accountable for their design features, such as infinite scrolling, autoplay videos, persistent notifications, and highly personalized recommendation systems, which they argue create addictive behaviors akin to gambling. D3 President Ricardo Lafuente stated that these features eliminate natural breaks in usage and continuously prompt users to return.

The legal actions come amid increasing scrutiny of social media platforms by regulators and rights groups in Europe and the United States regarding their impact on users. In February 2023, TikTok faced charges under EU rules for alleged addictive features, while in August 2023, Meta agreed to pay up to $18 billion to settle claims related to social media addiction in the United States.