A Los Angeles jury on Wednesday found Google and Alphabet’s Meta liable for $3 million in damages in a landmark social media addiction lawsuit that will influence thousands of similar cases against the tech companies.
Punitive damages for the companies will then be decided. The jury can determine whether Google or Meta’s products caused physical harm to the plaintiff or whether the companies neglected the health of other users, Judge Carolyn Kuhl said in court.
The case involves a 20-year-old woman who said she became addicted to Google’s YouTube and Meta’s Instagram at a young age because of their eye-catching design. The jury found that Google and Meta were negligent in the design of the two apps and failed to warn of their dangers.
“Today’s verdict is a referendum – from a jury to an entire industry – that accountability has come,” the plaintiff’s lead attorney said in a statement.
Meta shares rose 1% and Alphabet shares rose 0.2%, little changed after the verdict.
Meta disagrees with the verdict and its lawyers are “evaluating our legal options,” a company spokesperson said. Google plans to appeal, company spokesman José Castañeda said.
The plaintiffs in the Los Angeles proceedings focused on the design of the platform rather than the content, making it harder for companies to evade liability.
Snap and TikTok were also defendants in the trial. Both were settled with the plaintiff before the case began. Terms of the agreements were not disclosed.
Growing criticism
In the United States, large technology companies have faced increasing criticism over the past decade over the safety of children and adolescents. The debate has now moved to the courts and state governments. The US Congress has refused to pass comprehensive legislation regulating social media.
At least 20 states passed laws last year on social media use and children, according to the nonpartisan National Conference of State Legislatures, an organization that tracks state laws.
The legislation includes bills that regulate cellphone use in schools and require users to verify their age to open a social media account. NetChoice, a trade association backed by tech companies including Meta and Google, is seeking to invalidate age verification requirements in court.
A separate social media addiction case brought by several states and school districts against tech companies is expected to go to trial this summer in federal court in Oakland, California.
Another trial is expected to begin in Los Angeles in July, said Matthew Bergman, one of the lawyers handling the plaintiffs’ cases. This will involve Instagram, YouTube, TikTok and Snapchat.
Separately, a New Mexico jury ruled Tuesday that Meta violated state law in a lawsuit filed by the state’s attorney general, which accused the company of misleading users about the security of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp and enabling the sexual exploitation of children on those platforms.
