Social Media Companies Found Negligent
NATIONAL, U.S. (WDEF) – A Los Angeles County jury has found Meta and YouTube negligent in a first-of-its-kind lawsuit claiming that features of their platforms contributed to addiction and mental health harm in a young user.
The plaintiff, identified in court by her initials K.G.M., is a 20-year-old woman who testified that her use of Instagram, owned by Meta, and YouTube, owned by Alphabet and Google, led to compulsive engagement and adverse effects on her well-being.
Jurors decided that the platforms’ design and operation were negligent and awarded $3 million in compensatory damages to the plaintiff. Meta was found 70 percent responsible for the harm and YouTube 30 percent.
The trial is considered a bellwether and is the first lawsuit out of more than 1,600 similar actions consolidated in California alleging that social media platform design can cause real world harm.
Meta and Google have disagreed with the verdict and said they plan to appeal. Other social media companies named in the original suit, including TikTok and Snap, reached settlements before the trial began.
The case focused on platform design such as recommendation algorithms and engagement features rather than user generated content, which is normally shielded by federal law.
