In October 2025, New York City launched a major lawsuit against Facebook, Google, Snapchat, TikTok, and other social media platforms, accusing them of psychological damage to children through addiction to social media.

The lawsuit was massive—it was 327 pages long and was filed in federal court in Manhattan. The city sought damages from Meta (which owns Facebook and Instagram), Google/YouTube, Snapchat, and TikTok/ByteDance, claiming these companies were grossly negligent and creating a public nuisance.

New York City was not the only case to sue. Across the country, around 2,050 lawsuits were being brought against social media companies, and New York City joined several of them. New York City has a population of 8.48 million people, which includes approximately 1.8 million residents under 18 years old, and the New York City school system and its hospitals were also included as plaintiffs.

Google said the claims about YouTube were unfounded, and argued that YouTube serves as a streaming platform rather than a social media network for socialization with friends. The other companies declined to comment immediately.

The NYC law department explained that the lawsuit desired to move over from an earlier lawsuit in California to the federal case.

The lawsuit alleged that the companies designed their apps to interfere with children’s brains and keep children hooked.