US jury finds Meta and YouTube liable for social media addiction harm
A California jury found Meta and YouTube liable for negligence in designing addictive social media features that caused harm to a young user. The court awarded the plaintiff $6 million in damages, with Meta responsible for 70% of the award, marking the first social media addiction case to reach trial.
What happened
A US jury in California found Meta and YouTube liable for negligence in designing addictive features in their social media platforms. The verdict came after nine days of deliberation in the first lawsuit concerning social media's alleged harm to young people to go to trial.
The jury determined that the tech companies failed to provide adequate warnings about the potential dangers of their products. A 20-year-old woman plaintiff who said she became hooked on social media as a child was awarded $6 million in damages, with Meta ordered to pay 70% and YouTube the remainder.
Reported impact
The plaintiff claimed she became addicted to social media as a child due to the platforms' design. The verdict was interpreted as establishing precedent regarding social media companies' responsibility for harms caused to young users.
Governance controls
Google said it would appeal against the jury verdict, stating: 'We disagree with the verdict and plan to appeal. This case misunderstands YouTube, which is a responsibly built streaming platform, not a social media site.'
Meta stated: 'We respectfully disagree with the verdict and are evaluating our legal options.'
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.