Top social media stocks Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) and Snap, Inc. (NYSE: SNAP) have been sued by a Connecticut-based woman for allegedly contributing to the suicide of her 11-year old daughter, a report published by BBC said.
Enfield’s Selena Rodriguez committed suicide last year following an addiction to Meta and Snap’s social media platforms, Instagram and Snapchat. According to the lawsuit, the platforms offer potentially dangerous features that caused Selena’s death.
The Social Media Victims Law Center said Selena was extremely addicted to these platforms, for which she received mental health treatment on several occasions.
The lawsuit, which has been filed in California, alleges that the social media companies “knowingly and purposefully” offer products that harm their underage users. It has also been alleged that the minor was asked to share sexually exploitative content repeatedly on these platforms.
Selena committed suicide on July 21, 2021, having suffered from depression and sleep deprivation for months after she started spending more time on these platforms due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The lawsuit comes amid growing fears from parents about the impact that these social media platforms have on their children.
About Meta
Formerly known as Facebook, Inc., Meta is a multinational technology conglomerate based in the Californian city of Menlo Park. Its products include Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Oculus, and Giphy, among others.
FB stock closed 4.2% lower on Friday. It was trading 0.8% lower in the pre-market session on Monday.
Wall Street’s Take
Last week, UBS (NYSE: UBS) analyst Lloyd Walmsley maintained a Buy rating on Meta with a price target of $440 (45.1% upside potential).
Additionally, Brian Nowak of Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) reiterated a Buy rating on the stock and raised the price target to $395 from $365 (30.3% upside potential).
Overall, the stock has a Strong Buy consensus rating based on 26 Buys and 5 Holds. The average FB stock forecast of $407.75 implies 34.5% upside potential. Shares have lost 18.6% over the past six months.
Website Traffic
TipRanks’ Website Traffic Tool, which uses data from SEMrush Holdings (NYSE: SEMR), the world’s biggest website usage monitoring service, offers insight into Meta’s performance.
According to the tool, compared to the previous year, Meta’s website traffic registered a 9.3% decline in global visits in December. Moreover, website traffic has decreased 4.6% year-to-date against the same period last year.
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