Meta Platforms Inc., formerly Facebook Inc., was hit with a lawsuit today over the allegation that the company knew the harms its algorithm caused to the public and yet did nothing about it.

The suit comes on the back of a series of exposes pointing to myriad issues at Meta, one of them being that the company was told by external researchers that the app had a negative impact on the minds of the young. Former employee Frances Haugen, who was behind the leaks, later took off her mask and said Meta prioritizes growth over safety.

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost has now said Meta purposefully misled the public about its algorithm, filing the suit on the behalf of Meta investors and the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System. The suit claims that Meta violated securities law by making disingenuous claims about “safety, security and privacy of its platforms” with the intention of boosting its stock.

Yost wants more than $100 billion in damages and actions put in place that will ensure Meta cannot mislead investors in a similar way again. “Facebook said it was looking out for our children and weeding out online trolls, but in reality was creating misery and divisiveness for profit,” Yost said in a statement.

The $100 billion, says Yost, is about how much the investors lost after the leaks hit the airwaves and Meta’s stock price fell. In response, Meta issued a statement, saying, “This suit is without merit and we will defend ourselves vigorously.”

Meta has always strenuously denied that it prioritizes growth over safety. Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said after the leaks that the information exposed led the media to whip up an unnecessary storm. “At the heart of these stories is a premise which is false,”a Facebook spokesperson told CNN last month. “Yes, we’re a business and we make profit, but the idea that we do so at the expense of people’s safety or wellbeing misunderstands where our own commercial interests lie.”

Photo: Anthony Quintano/Flickr