MINNEAPOLIS (KFGO/WCCO) – The Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa in Minnesota is among five tribal nations suing social media companies like Facebook, Instagram and TikTok for their roll in a mental health crisis among Native American youth.
Tim Purdon is with Minneapolis-based law firm Robins-Kaplan which filed the lawsuit specifically focused on Native American teens, which he says are uniquely vulnerable.
“They are more vulnerable because they’ve struggled with mental health,” Purdon said. “Because of isolation, and poverty on some of the reservations, they’re more vulnerable and certainly we know that they use social media as much if not more than non-native counterparts.”
Purdon said social media companies still target Native American youth despite knowing about the adverse mental health impacts.
“There is a growing body of evidence that these business practices that are designed to drive advertising revenue, we allege are contributing to these poor mental health outcomes,” Purdon explains.
Suicide is the second-leading cause of death for Native American youth.
Purdon says they’ll seek financial damages to help fix mental, public health crisis created by social media companies.
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