The CEO of Facebook Mark Zuckerberg along with other executives and directors of other Meta platforms are receiving a major backlash after a shareholder filed a lawsuit accusing these officials didn’t do much to stop child sexual exploitation and sex trafficking on various social media platforms including Instagram and Facebook.
The existing investors and shareholders of the Meta stock claimed that its board failed to ensure safety and protect the company’s interest by ignoring the solid evidence, which they described as the “systematic evidence” of the crime.
Kiwi Investment Management Wholesale Core Global Fund, the Employee’s Retirement System of the State of Rhode Island, and Teamsters Pension Fund together stepped ahead to sue Meta’s controlling shareholder as well as other board members.
As per the complaint, Meta was a free platform where its users unquestionably facilitated sex trafficking.
Since the authorities have failed to explain themselves in this situation, it generates more doubts in the minds of the public thinking whether or not the platform authorities including Zuckerberg was knowingly involved in this.
The lawsuit also pointed at Meta for shirking its duties because as per the filing, the criminal activities were spotted unattended on the tech giant’s social media platforms.
It further addressed Mark Zuckerberg and a few other board members and executives, leading them to pay for the damages. The complaint was filed in the Court of Chancery in the United States.
The primary charge in the suit was against the Meta senior executives and board members as they allegedly turned blind eye to human trafficking, child exploitation, and other criminal conduct taking place within the online platforms owned by Meta.
But the lawsuit has clearly mentioned the name of Meta chief Zuckerberg, making him the primary target of the filing.
On the other hand, Meta already has policies, partnerships, software, and teams determined to control the misusing of its platforms including Facebook and Instagram.
Inquiries quickly started right after the complaint went public on Monday and Meta’s spokesperson Andy Stone was among the few authorities who showed up in Meta’s defense. According to her, Meta is strictly against “child sexual abuse” and “human exploitation” under any “uncertain terms.”
In addition to explaining the platform’s common interest, she also claimed that the filing materialized their efforts. Finally, Stein highlighted Meta’s major objective which is to remove users who intend to exploit others on the platform. Specifically said, Meta literally rejected the entire basis of the lawsuit.
Apart from the latest lawsuit, Meta is already involved in a string of complaints, including whether its networks are negatively affecting the mental health of its young users and whether its contents are promoting users in a non-intended way.
In 2019, Zuckerberg told Congress that one of their vital concerns was child exploitation on their platforms and they were highly focused on eliminating it.
Since 2021, Meta has been under legislative pressure as the former Facebook engineer Frances Haugen leaked reliable documents suggesting the Facebook authorities prioritized profit before safety and security.
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More than half of the complaints were registered by parents of teenagers who assert their children were pushed by both Instagram and Facebook, to suffer mental health problems. Such filings were also backed by a few school districts as the majority of the youngsters were trapped within their online lifestyles.
They also have a long-standing accusation pending which claims that they are an asylum for sexual misconduct.
In June 2021, three Facebook users were allowed by the Texas Supreme Court to sue their Facebook abusers, stating the platform was not a “lawless land.” At that time, the court made it clear that nobody including famous social media platforms like Facebook was free from responsibility for sex trafficking.
However, the recent lawsuit is quite different from the prevailing ones as in this derivative case, officers, directors, and moreover, its chief Zuckerberg alleged to violate their duties.
In the wake of the Monday lawsuit, an old email, which was sent in 2010, has been swirling on the internet for the first time, showing an enraged Zuckerberg asking his employee to “please resign.”
The resignation mail came immediately after the Facebook employee was accused of leaking documents suggesting the future plans of the platform. However, the Facebook CEO instantly reached out to the public, dismissing the alleged announcement made by the employee. The TechCrunch story asserted that Facebook was about to launch a phone.
According to him, the leak was ‘an act of betrayal.” In the September 2010 mail, Zuckerberg further declared that he had spoken at length regarding the issue in a Q&A and denied the accusation saying they were not planning to build a phone, instead, they were looking for ways in which they could make all phones including its apps more social.
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