Momentous Facebook Lawsuit Shows Need to Integrate Morality in Technology

Molly Russell was 14. Ms. Russell was active on social media platforms, including Instagram, Pinterest and Twitter. Around the time of her death, her father found images encouraging self-harm on her computer. In 2017, she “died from an act of self-harm while suffering depression and the negative effects of online content,” Andrew Walker, a coroner from the United Kingdom, concluded in a report that same year. “I have no doubt Instagram helped kill my daughter,” Molly’s father, Ian, said of Meta’s social media product in an interview with the BBC in 2019. Ms. Russell’s story was told in a lawsuit that 42 state attorneys general filed against Meta (formerly Facebook) in October. In that case, the states levied a salvo of charges at Meta, alleging that the social media giant knowingly harms children by making them addicted to its products—and concealing the fact that it’s doing so to chase profits....