BENNETTSVILLE— The Marlboro County School District has become the latest school district to join a federal lawsuit against social media companies. At Monday’s board meeting, attorney Doug Jennings presented an agreement to the district.

“Across this country there is litigation being filed by school districts, towns, and individuals against the social media giants, this includes Meta, which owns Facebook, and the company that owns TikTok, alleging that the social media industry has harmed young people by bringing about addictive behavior causing a lot of emotional problems for young people and causing school districts to have to spend additional money,” Jennings said in his address to the board.

The federal lawsuit was filed by Motley Rice LLC in the U.S. District Court of Northern California and names Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Google, YouTube, and their parent companies in the suit.

Court records show that other South Carolina school districts have joined the lawsuit, including Florence 1 in the Pee Dee. Horry County Schools joined the lawsuit in August, according to a Post and Courier article from September 4.

Jennings said that the Motley Rice law firm brought it to his attention that MCSD wasn’t a part of the suit. “This is a win-win thing for the school district,” he said. If the district loses the case, they won’t owe any attorney’s fees.

“If the case is settled down the road, Marlboro County School District will be getting their share of the damages, minus a 25% contingency attorney’s fee. I’m glad the board sees it as a positive thing for your district and the students that you serve,” Jennings said.

So, what’s in the lawsuit?

According to the Post and Courier:

“The lawsuit accuses social media companies of breaching the public’s trust by “knowingly exploiting their most vulnerable users” as a way to drive corporate profit, according to court records.

The lawsuit alleges that these companies, specifically Meta Platforms, make their revenue through the sale of advertising, and revenue is generated by marketing their user bases to advertisers.

Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, collects and analyzes data on its users, generates algorithms based on this data, and shows users the content that its algorithm believes will interest the users more, according to the complaint. The ultimate goal is to keep users on the platforms. “Defendants have intentionally designed their products to maximize users’ screen time, using complex algorithms designed to exploit human psychology,” the lawsuit stated. “Defendants have progressively modified their products to promote problematic and excessive use that they know threatens the actuation of addictive and self-destructive behavioral patterns.”

Minors are believed to be especially harmed by increased social media use, and they are at greater risk of developing these negative behavioral patterns. But the social media companies did not warn them or try to adjust their platforms to prevent this harm, the lawsuit stated.

The complaint alleges the platforms have failed to warn consumers for years about the mental, physical, and emotional harms that can come from the foreseeable use of their products, according to court records.”

Marlboro County Schools had to address rumors that spread via social media at Monday’s meeting (See page 11 for more details).