Ohio AG lawsuit accuses Facebook of duping shareholders • The Register – TheRegister

Facebook was sued by Ohio’s Attorney General Dave Yost on Tuesday for allegedly deceiving shareholders about the potential harm its social media platform inflicted on young users. The complaint [PDF] was filed on behalf of the state’s largest pension fund, Ohio Public Employees Retirement System, and all other investors that acquired Facebook shares between April 29 and October 22 this year. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, CFO David Wehner, and VP of Global Affairs and Communications (and former British Deputy Prime Minister) Nick Clegg were also listed as defendants. It’s the latest federal securities fraud lawsuit to hit Facebook, also known as Meta for corporate reputation-washing reasons. Whistleblower and ex-employee Frances Haugen obtained and leaked internal documents that, for one thing, indicated the social media giant optimized its algorithms to keep users hooked on its platform even though doing so was detrimental to the mental health of some netizens. The data also demonstrated how Facebook’s AI content moderation systems were ineffective at removing misinformation, toxic hate speech, and violent videos. Illicit activities such as drug smuggling and human trafficking also flew under the radar. The documents led to a string of news articles dubbed The Facebook Papers, an effort led by…
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