Attorney-General indicts Meta for securities fraud, deceiving the public

*Attorney-General Dave Yost of Ohio State in the US in the lawsuit says that Facebook’s actions cost investors as the company was aware that Instagram was having a harmful effect on some teenaged girls in the country

Isola Moses | ConsumerConnect

Attorney-General Dave Yost of Ohio State in the United States (US) has said he is suing Meta, the company formerly known as Facebook, and accusing the global tech giant of misleading the public about how it controlled its proprietary algorithm.

The suit takes a two-pronged approach, claiming the company’s actions were aimed at boosting its stock and deceiving shareholders, agency report said.

It was learnt that the lawsuit was filed on behalf of the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System (OPERS) and other Facebook investors.

The complainant also alleged that Facebook and its Senior Executives violated Federal securities laws from April 29, 2021, through October 21, 2021.

However, in the company’s reaction to the legal action, Joe Osborne, a Meta Spokesman, to the Wall Street Journal that “this suit is without merit and we will defend ourselves vigorously.”

Report indicates that the purported violation centres on revelations made by a former Facebook employee who leaked internal company research late September 2021.

Those documents contended that the company was aware that Instagram was having a harmful effect on some teenaged girls.

Attorney-General Yost also stated: “Facebook said it was looking out for our children and weeding out online trolls, but in reality was creating misery and divisiveness for profit. “We are not people to Mark Zuckerberg, we are the product and we are being used against each other out of greed.”

Yost as well cites a series of articles published in the Wall Street Journal that he says demonstrate Facebook’s priorities.

According to him, the revelations triggered a congressional investigation and renewed calls in some quarters to break up the social media giant.

Yost’s suit claims that Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and other company officials made statements about safety, security, and privacy on the platform that they knew were not true.

The suit stated that Facebook admitted in those internal documents that it was “not actually doing what we say we do publicly.”

Besides charges that Meta deceived the public, the suit also charges that the revelations by the former employee ended up costing investors, including OPERS.

The lawsuit claims that the company’s action caused the stock to fall by more than $54 a share, costing investors $100 billion.

Yost’s lawsuit asks the court to order Meta to make good on those losses and to make significant reforms to ensure it does not happen again.