Lisbon, Sept 10 - A Portuguese digital rights organisation, D3, has filed four collective lawsuits against the owners of Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube, alleging those platforms were designed to keep users repeatedly engaged.
The legal actions, brought on behalf of broader groups of consumers, were lodged with Lisbon's Civil Court between April and May by law firm Andersen Tax & Legal Iberia and were disclosed publicly only after the judicial summer break, D3 said.
In its announcement, D3 identified a set of platform features it says foster sustained use: infinite scrolling, autoplay videos, persistent notifications and highly personalised recommendation systems deployed on Meta's Facebook and Instagram, ByteDance's TikTok and Alphabet's YouTube. The organisation argues that by removing natural pauses in usage, constantly delivering personalised content and repeatedly prompting users to return, these design choices create behavioural feedback loops that it compares to techniques long used in the gambling industry.
"Platforms do not have to be hyper-addictive," D3 President Ricardo Lafuente said in the group's statement. "A healthy, productive and educational social media ecosystem is possible, but only if the rules are robust, properly enforced and directed at those who persist in ignoring them."
None of the companies that own the platforms being sued - Meta, ByteDance and Alphabet - immediately replied to requests for comment.
D3's actions follow litigation and regulatory moves in other jurisdictions that have challenged social media design. The organisation noted that in February TikTok faced charges under European Union rules related to allegedly addictive features, and that in August Meta agreed to pay up to $18 billion to resolve addiction-related claims in the United States.
Data compiled by SocialMediaTransparency.org, cited by D3, indicate that the four platforms together reached 33 million monthly users in Portugal in the first half of 2026.
Context and scope
The suits are collective actions, a legal mechanism that permits associations to pursue claims on behalf of a larger pool of consumers. D3 frames its objective as holding the platforms accountable and compelling them to provide a safer user experience.
By focusing on interface design elements such as autoplay and continual personalised recommendations, the complaints target the mechanics that, according to D3, reduce natural opportunities for users to stop engaging and, in doing so, create persistent usage patterns.
What the filings allege
- The platforms intentionally deploy features that sustain continuous consumption of content.
- Those features remove natural breaks in usage and repeatedly prompt users to return to the services.
- D3 compares the resulting behavioural feedback loops to methods used in the gambling industry.
The lawsuits are the latest instance of legal and regulatory scrutiny of social media functionality on both sides of the Atlantic, according to the material released by D3.