Meta has removed advertisements from law firms on its platforms that were recruiting clients for lawsuits alleging social media addiction, marking a significant escalation in the company's response to mounting legal challenges.
In a statement, Meta declared, "We will not allow trial lawyers to profit from our platforms while simultaneously claiming they are harmful." This move comes after the company recently lost two high-profile cases in the United States, including a landmark California trial where a young woman successfully sued Meta and YouTube over her childhood social media addiction.
Emily Jeffcott, an attorney for Morgan & Morgan—one of the firms whose ads were removed—criticized Meta's decision. "This is another example of Meta trying to control the narrative and avoid accountability," she said. "The resources Meta is devoting to blocking these ads would be better spent improving user safety through functional tools to reduce problematic use and to detect and remove users under age 13. Blocking the ads doesn't make the harms go away. It just makes it harder on victims."
According to reports, companies including Morgan & Morgan and Sokolove Law saw "dozens" of their advertisements deactivated. These ads had been running across Facebook, Instagram, Threads, and Meta's Audience Network, which extends advertising to third-party platforms.
Meta's advertising standards state that the company reserves the right to remove ads that "negatively affect our relationship with our users or that promote content, services or activities contrary to our competitive position, interests or advertising philosophy."
The recent legal developments have highlighted the growing scrutiny of social media platforms:
In March 2026, a New Mexico court ordered Meta to pay $375 million for misleading users about platform safety for children, finding the company liable for endangering children and exposing them to sexually explicit material and predators.
In the California social media addiction case, a woman was awarded $6 million in damages, with Meta expected to pay 70% and Google 30%. Snap and TikTok, initially defendants, reached undisclosed settlements before trial.
Meta has stated it plans to appeal both verdicts and disagrees with the outcomes. As of Friday, some advertisements from law firms still appeared active in Meta's Ad Library, including one from Morgan & Morgan listing potential negative effects of social media use and claiming to fight on users' behalf.
The removal of these ads represents a strategic shift as Meta faces increasing legal pressure over platform safety and addiction concerns, with more similar lawsuits expected to emerge in US courts.