The suit was brought by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who is running in the Republican primary for the U.S. Senate.


The state of Texas is suing Netflix, alleging that the company spies on its users and purposefully designs the service to be addictive.

Texas has sued Netflix, alleging that the company “spies” on its users and purposely designs its service to be “addictive.” The state’s attorney general, Ken Paxton, announced the lawsuit today, alleging that Netflix “represented to consumers that it did not collect or share extensive user data” for years, while it was actually collecting and selling that information to data brokers.

The complaint, which was filed in a Texas district court, cites Netflix CEO Reed Hastings claiming in a 2020 earnings call that, “We don’t collect anything,” when comparing the company to other tech giants like Google, Facebook and Amazon. Paxton, who is currently running for U.S. Senate in the Texas Republican primary, claims that Netflix’s collection of user data violates Texas’ Deceptive Trade Practices Act.

“Netflix’s endgame is simple and lucrative: get children and families glued to the screen, harvest their data while they are stuck there, and then monetize the data for a handsome profit,” the complaint claims.

The Texas suit comes as tech companies are under increasing scrutiny over how they design their apps and services, along with the potential danger they may pose to kids. In March, a California jury found Meta and YouTube liable in a social media addiction suit. Meta was also found liable on that same day in an online child safety case brought by New Mexico.

As reported by Reuters, a Netflix spokesperson responded that the suit “lacks merit and is ?based on inaccurate and distorted information." The spokesperson continued: "Netflix takes our members’ privacy ?seriously and complies with privacy and data protection laws everywhere we operate."

Several countries are also actively considering or have passed online child safety laws that ban kids under certain ages from social media. Australia was the first to implement a social media ban for kids under 16 this year, but many countries across Europe and elsewhere are considering their own. The U.S. Congress is also currently advancing several kids’ online safety measures.

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