A Connecticut mother has filed a lawsuit against Meta, (formally known as Facebook) and Snap, claiming the social media platforms played a significant role in her daughter’s choice to commit suicide.
Back in July 2021, Tammy Rodriguez‘s 11-year-old daughter, Selena Rodriguez, died by suicide. Rodriguez says two years prior to Selena’s death, Selena started using social media heavily. In the legal document filed in San Francisco federal court last week, Rodriguez stated Selena developed “an extreme addiction to Instagram and Snapchat.”
The complaint explains that Selena began suffering from depression, sleep deprivation, and eating disorders around this time. Rodriguez says her daughter also started to harm herself, miss school and men allegedly sent Selena messages asking her to send them sexually explicit content of herself, Business Insider reports.
Rodriguez attempted to get her daughter help through therapy and mental health services, she states in the court filing. One of the therapists who saw her daughter said they’d “never seen a patient as addicted to social media as Selena.” Selena, at one point, had to be taken to the hospital for emergency psychiatric care, according to the complaint. Rodriguez’s lawsuit claims that social media, particularly Snapchat and Facebook’s “dangerous and defective social media products,” allegedly contributed to her daughter committing suicide.
A spokesperson for Snap told Insider that it can’t speak on the active case but mentioned that “nothing is more important to us than the wellbeing of our community.”
“We are devastated to hear of Selena’s passing and our hearts go out to her family,” the spokesperson told Insider. “Snapchat helps people communicate with their real friends, without some of the public pressure and social comparison features of traditional social media platforms, and intentionally makes it hard for strangers to contact young people.” The Snap spokesperson continued, saying: “We work closely with many mental health organizations to provide in-app tools and resources for Snapchatters as part of our ongoing work to keep our community safe.”
