Fond du Lac Band becomes first Minnesota tribe to join legal fight against social media giants

DULUTH - The Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa is the first Minnesota tribe to join a growing legal battle across the Midwest in Indian Country. Five tribal nations are together taking aim at social media giants, as Indigenous youth suffer a disproportionate mental health crisis the tribes say is worsened by social media.

Suicide is the second-leading cause of death for Native American youth. The group’s suicide rate increased 70% in 10 years — that’s five times higher than white peers, according to the CDC.

“The mental health crisis among Minnesota tribes, including the Fond du Lac Band, is especially dire,” reads the 160-page lawsuit filed last week in Los Angeles County Superior Court by Robins Kaplan LLP, a national law firm based in Minneapolis.

It’s the latest tribal legal action against Meta, parent company of Facebook and Instagram. Robins Kaplan filed the first-of-its-kind lawsuit in April against Meta, Snapchat, TikTok, Google and YouTube on behalf of the Spirit Lake Nation and Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians in North Dakota and the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin. Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate in South Dakota later joined the lawsuits.

The lawsuits say that rampant, compulsive social media use among Native American teens is contributing to the mental health crisis and staggering suicide rates. Tribes accuse the companies of knowing about the adverse effects on youth, yet targeting kids anyway to make them more addicted to social media. Last month, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy called for a warning label on social media platforms, stating that social media is associated with significant mental health harms for adolescents.

Messages seeking comment were left with the social media companies or their owners. In an emailed statement, a Meta spokesperson said the company has developed more than 30 tools and features to protect teenagers, including ways for parents to set time limits on the apps, age-verification technology and restricting teens under 16 from receiving direct messages from people they don’t follow.

“These are complex issues but we will continue working with experts and listening to parents to develop new tools, features and policies that are effective and meet the needs of teens and their families,” the company said.

Google spokesman José Castañeda said in a prepared statement: “Providing young people with a safer, healthier experience has always been core to our work. ... The allegations in these complaints are simply not true.”

Fond du Lac Band spokesman Caleb Dunlap declined to comment.

Tara Sutton, partner at Robins Kaplan, said that youth in Indian Country are no different than peers in that they spend hours glued to devices each day. But unlike their peers, Indigenous youth are at a greater disadvantage.

Native Americans who suffer from violence, PTSD and don’t have access to opportunities or education are more likely to be at risk, the lawsuit says. Moreover, the youth mental health crisis in Indian Country is “a painful echo to centuries of historical trauma — including forced adoption and compulsory boarding schools.”

“Oftentimes I think problems in Indian Country get ignored, but that’s part of the reason we have been pursuing these cases,” Sutton said in a phone interview Monday.

“If you don’t stand up and speak out, troubles on the tribal nations are just going to be ignored or swept under the rug and the proper recoveries will not flow to tribes. ... Tribal nations are just tired of that happening, and it’s happened far too many times.”

Sutton said similarly to when tribes united to fight opioid manufacturers, and won, now they are taking on another form of manufactured addiction. She worked on nicotine vaping litigation, too, and sees parallels.

Not only are young people the “most lucrative market,” the lawsuit says, but youth are also “those most vulnerable to harms resulting” from social media products.

Numerous claims are laid out in the lawsuit accusing the companies of deceptive trade practices, negligence and unfair or unconscionable acts. Robins Kaplan argues the apps are promoting negative appearance comparisons and inflicting impossible beauty standards. As a result, female tribal teens die from suicide at a rate over five times higher than white counterparts, the lawsuit claims.

The companies “failed to disclose the dangerous nature of their platforms,” and “utilized psychologically manipulative engagement-inducing features” that ultimately impede discontinued use.

The lawsuit says that ultimately the companies’ practices are “unethical, oppressive, and unscrupulous” by causing “unnecessary and unjustified harm to young users for defendants’ financial gain.”

Sutton said unspecified financial damages from the civil litigation would go toward building mental health resources, programming and infrastructure for youth specific to each sovereign nation.