NEW YORK — Facebook parent company Meta must face lawsuits by US states accusing it of fuelling mental health problems among teens by making its Facebook and Instagram platforms addictive, a federal judge in California ruled on Oct 15.

Oakland-based US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers rejected Meta's bid to toss the claims made by the states in two separate lawsuits filed in 2023, one involving more than 30 states, including California and New York, and the other brought by Florida.

Rogers put some limits on the states' claims, agreeing with Meta that a federal law known as Section 230 regulating online platforms partly shielded the company. However, she found that the states had put forward enough detail about allegedly misleading statements made by the company to go forward with most of their case.

The judge also rejected motions by Meta, ByteDance's TikTok, Alphabet's YouTube and Snap's Snapchat to dismiss related personal injury lawsuits by individual plaintiffs. The other companies are not defendants in the states' lawsuits.

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