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Meta is pulling ads that recruit plaintiffs suing Meta [1]

['Ellsworth Toohey']

Date: 2026-04-09  

Two weeks after a California jury found Meta negligent in a landmark social media addiction case, the company has started removing ads on its own platforms from attorneys seeking plaintiffs for related lawsuits. Axios identified more than 12 deactivated ads from firms, including Morgan & Morgan and Sokolove Law, which had been running on Facebook, Instagram, Threads, and Messenger.

One of the pulled ads read: "Anxiety. Depression. Withdrawal. Self-harm. These aren't just teenage phases…" Meta is citing a terms-of-service clause that lets the company remove content to "avoid or mitigate misuse" or "adverse legal or regulatory impacts." The ads had also been distributed through Meta's Audience Network, which places ads on third-party websites outside Meta's own apps.

A Meta spokesperson said, "We will not allow trial lawyers to profit from our platforms while simultaneously claiming they are harmful." The company's standard advertising policies don't specifically address personal-injury recruitment ads — Meta is relying on the broader TOS language instead, which overrides the ad standards.

The California verdict, which found Meta and YouTube negligent for the addictive design of their platforms and the harms caused to users under 18, set off a new wave of plaintiff recruitment. Lawyers are now looking to expand class-action suits, which is why they are buying ads on the platform that, per the jury, helped cause the harm.

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[1] Url: https://boingboing.net/2026/04/09/meta-is-pulling-ads-that-recruit-plaintiffs-suing-meta.html

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