Jury finds Mehta and Google liable for $3 million in social media addiction trial
A jury has found Meta and Google liable for $3 million in damages in a lawsuit alleging that their apps were designed to addict children.
A jury on March 25 found Meta and Google liable for $3 million in damages in a landmark case over allegations that popular social media apps such as Instagram and YouTube are designed to make children addicted.
The Los Angeles case centers on a 20-year-old woman who calls herself Kaylee GM, who has been hooked on Google’s YouTube and Meta’s Instagram since she was a child.
The jury found that Google and Meta were negligent in the design of both apps and failed to warn them of their dangers.
“Today’s verdict is a referendum on accountability, from the jury to the entire industry,” the plaintiffs’ lead attorney said in a statement, according to Reuters.
Meta disagrees with the ruling and its lawyers are “considering their legal options,” a company spokesperson said. Google had no immediate comment.
What kind of incident was it?
According to court filings, GM Cayley claimed in the lawsuit that he became addicted to social media apps as a teenager due to their attention-grabbing designs, which led to his mental health deteriorating.
The trial began with opening statements on February 9 in Los Angeles Superior Court and lasted more than a month.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified in court on February 18th and faced questions about Facebook and Instagram’s age restrictions and safety measures. He said the platform does not allow users under 13 to sign up for accounts, despite plaintiffs’ lawyers presenting evidence suggesting otherwise, Reuters reported.
The lawsuit is one of thousands of similar lawsuits filed against social media companies, according to Reuters. However, only a small number of cases, including the Cayley GM case, are scheduled to be tried this year as test cases known as “pilot cases.”
Clay Calvert, a nonresident senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, told USA TODAY’s The Excerpt’s Dana Taylor that if the jury sides with the plaintiffs in this case, the ruling “could open the floodgates to further litigation.”
“The question is, what was the cause of the harm that (GM Cayley) says she is suffering? Is it the content of the videos and posts that she sees and sees on the social media platform? Or is it a flaw, an alleged flaw in the design of the platform itself?” Calvert said.
Google and Meta deny allegations
Google spokesperson Jose Castañeda previously said in a statement to USA TODAY that “the allegations in these complaints are simply not true.”
“Providing safer and healthier experiences for young people has always been at the core of our work. Working with youth, mental health and parenting experts, we have built services and policies that provide age-appropriate experiences for young people and robust controls for parents,” Castañeda said.
Meta also previously addressed privacy protections for teenagers in a statement to USA TODAY.
“We strongly dispute these claims and are confident that the evidence supports our long-standing commitment to supporting young people. For more than a decade, we have listened to parents, worked with experts and law enforcement, and conducted thorough investigations to understand the issues that matter most,” the company said.
Snapchat’s parent company Snap and TikTok were initially named as targets in the lawsuit, but both settled with the plaintiffs before the trial began, according to Reuters.
(This article has been updated with new information.)
Contributed by: Reuters
