Motion Picture Association sent a notice to , ordering it to stop using the MPA‘s PG-13 movie rating to describe Instagram‘s framework for new teen settings in the app. The trade group called Instagram’s use of the PG-13 moniker “literally false and highly misleading.”

“The MPA has worked for decades to earn the public’s trust in its rating system,” the MPA said in the cease-and-desist letter, sent to Meta on Oct. 28. “Any dissatisfaction with Meta’s automated classification will inevitably cause the public to question the integrity of the MPA’s rating system.”

The MPA’s letter, a copy of which was obtained by Variety, said “The MPA prefers to resolve this matter amicably without litigation.”

“Because Meta’s statements are literally false, deceptive, and highly misleading, they constitute false advertising under federal law… and violate various state laws,” the MPA said in the letter. “Additionally, by repeatedly equating its Teen Account settings with the PG-13 rating (often in close proximity to the symbol), Meta’s activities are likely to cause consumers to believe that Meta is approved to use the PG-13 rating or that Meta and the MPA are collaborating in some way,” also in violation of U.S. federal law. Meta’s actions also “impair the distinctiveness of the MPA’s famous PG-13 mark” and thus constitute an illegal “dilution” of the trademark, according to the letter.

The letter was addressed to Meta chief legal officer Jennifer Newstead, sent on behalf of the trade org by Naresh Kilaru, a partner with Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner, a law firm specializing in intellectual property matters.

MPA member studios are Netflix, Paramount Pictures, Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios, Sony Pictures, Universal Studios, Walt Disney Studios and Warner Bros. Discovery.

On Oct. 14, Instagram announced it was revamping its Teen Accounts to be “guided” by the MPA’s PG-13 movie rating. What that means, according to Instagram, is that users of teen accounts (supervised by a parent) will be restricted to seeing content that contains the level of nudity, sexual expression, profanity, drug use, violence and other adult-oriented themes that they they would expect to see in a PG-13 movie.

In announcing the Teen Accounts, Instagram said, “We decided to more closely align our policies with an independent standard that parents are familiar with, so we reviewed our age-appropriate guidelines against PG-13 movie ratings and updated them accordingly. While of course there are differences between movies and social media, we made these changes so teens’ experiences in the 13+ setting feel closer to the Instagram equivalent of watching a PG-13 movie.”

According to the MPA, such statements imply a “false equivalency” between the MPA’s human-generated ratings and Meta’s AI-based content filtering. “Meta’s attempts to restrict teen content literally cannot be ‘guided by’ or ‘aligned with’ the MPA’s PG-13 movie rating because Meta does not follow [the MPA’s] curated process. Instead, Meta’s content restrictions appear to rely heavily on artificial intelligence or other automated technology measures,” the trade group said in the letter to Meta.

In a response to the MPA’s cease-and-desist letter, Meta countered that it never claimed the Instagram teen accounts were officially “PG-13 rated” or certified by the MPA. “Meta’s statements regarding Teen Accounts being ‘guided by PG-13 ratings’ are factually accurate,” the social-media giant said in the response, as reported by the Wall Street Journal. “The process involved a review and update of Meta’s content moderation protocol against the publicly available PG-13 standards, as reflected in Meta’s communications.”

“We know social media isn’t the same as movies, but we made this change to support parents, and we hope to work with the MPA to continue bringing families this clarity,” a Meta spokesperson told the WSJ.

The MPA had previously objected to Instagram’s usage of the PG-13 label, saying the Meta didn’t contact the Hollywood trade group prior to the announcement. “We welcome efforts to protect kids from content that may not be appropriate for them, but assertions that Instagram’s new tool will be ‘guided by PG-13 movie ratings’ or have any connection to the film industry’s rating system are inaccurate,” MPA chairman and CEO Charles Rivkin said in a statement after Instagram’s Teen Accounts announcement.

The MPA (formerly the Motion Picture Association of America) introduced its film-ratings system in November 1968 under then-chairman Jack Valenti. Since then, the Classification and Rating Administration (CARA) has operated the voluntary film-rating system with a Ratings Board comprised of parents who must have a child between the ages of 5 and 15 when they first join. The Ratings Board watches every movie in its entirety and assigns it a rating and descriptor that aligns with the views of the majority of American parents. More than 90% of parents say CARA’s film ratings help them make better viewing choices for their families, according to the MPA.