Ever since its inception, Meta Platforms (META) has been embroiled in controversy.
Founded as Facebook in 2004, the social media giant's creation was the subject of controversy as Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss filed a lawsuit claiming that Mark Zuckerberg stole their idea for a social network.
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The case was settled with the twins receiving $20 million in cash and the rest of the $65 million settlement in stock.
But that was just the beginning, as the company, which also owns Instagram and WhatsApp, contended with accusations of leaking third party data, abusing users' privacy settings, and incentivizing politicians to lobby against data privacy laws.
Two years ago, Frances Haugen, a former product manager at Facebook, made headlines when she accused the social media giant of putting profits over the impact of hate speech.
She submitted documents to Congress to show that Facebook had repeatedly misled the public about "safety of children, the efficacy of its artificial intelligence systems, and its role in spreading divisive and extreme messages."
Haugen urged members of Congress to change the regulatory framework that Facebook operates under.
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Executives Allegedly 'Turned Blind Eye' to Evidence
Facebook denied the allegations at the time, saying that "to suggest we encourage bad content and do nothing is just not true."
Now Meta is facing another potential firestorm.
Zuckerberg and other executives and directors are being sued for allegedly failing to do enough to stop sex trafficking and child sexual exploitation on Facebook and Instagram.
The complaint by several pension and investment funds that own Meta stock said Meta's leadership and board have failed to protect the company's shareholders' interests by turning a blind eye to "systemic evidence" of criminal activity, Reuters reported on March 21.
Given the board's failure to explain how it tries to root out the problem, "the only logical inference is that the board has consciously decided to permit Meta's platforms to promote and facilitate sex/human trafficking," according to complaint, which was filed in Delaware Chancery Court.
"We prohibit human exploitation and child sexual exploitation in no uncertain terms," Meta said in response. "The claims in this lawsuit mischaracterize our efforts to combat this type of activity. Our goal is to prevent people who seek to exploit others from using our platform."
In June 2021, the Texas Supreme Court allowed three people who became entangled with their abusers through Facebook to sue, saying Facebook was not a "lawless no-man's-land" immune from liability for human trafficking.
Meta separately faces hundreds of lawsuits from families of teenagers and younger children who claimed to suffer mental health problems by becoming addicted to Facebook and Instagram. Some school districts have also filed lawsuits over the problem.
The lawsuit comes just days after former President Donald Trump returned to Facebook after a more than two-year ban following the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol Building.
Social Media Role in Trafficking
Social media has been seen as a significant factor in trafficking, with the U.S. State Department warning that "traffickers continued to increasingly use social media platforms to recruit and advertise victims."
The Human Trafficking Institute said in its 2021 report that 83% of active 2020 sex trafficking cases involved online solicitation, the most common tactic traffickers use to solicit sex buyers.
The report found that 59% of online victim recruitment in active sex trafficking cases occurred on Facebook.
In addition, 65% of underage victims recruited online in 2020 active criminal sex trafficking cases were recruited through Facebook, while 14% were recruited through Instagram, and 8% were recruited through Snapchat.
A 2018 study by the Polaris Project said social media networks and websites have “made laudable efforts and contributions toward combatting human trafficking,” but added that “there is room to do more.”
Among other recommendations, the group said social media networks should call out human trafficking in their terms of service, create easy and accessible reporting options and team up with survivors and experts in the areas of human trafficking, the sex industry, domestic violence and other abuses to create consulting partnerships or advisory boards.
"Such partnerships can help develop and improve internal policies, create seamless reporting relationships, create smarter safety and privacy tool for survivors, and ensure traffickers and abusers are less able to misuse the benefits of social media products," the report said.
