The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe is the latest of several tribes suing social media companies over their alleged effects on mental health. (Getty Images illustration)
The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in North and South Dakota has filed a lawsuit in California against the parent companies of Facebook, Snapchat, YouTube and TikTok.
The lawsuit, which alleges the tech companies’ social media apps are addictive and contribute to a mental health crisis on tribal lands, is the latest in a series filed by Native American tribes through the Minneapolis-based Robins Kaplan law firm.
In April, the Spirit Lake Tribe in North Dakota and the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin filed the first two lawsuits to make the allegations of deceptive, harmful practices and demand compensation “in an amount to be determined in a trial.”
The lawsuits all allege that the social media companies have preyed upon teens for profit by offering up content through algorithms designed to hook users and keep them online for an unhealthy amount of time.