A Los Angeles jury on Wednesday found Alphabet’s Google and Meta liable for $3 million in damages in a landmark social media addiction lawsuit that will affect thousands of similar cases against the tech companies.
Punitive damages to the companies will then be decided. The jury can consider whether Google or Meta’s products caused the plaintiff physical harm, or whether the companies disregarded 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 attention-grabbing design. The jury found that Google and Meta were negligent in the design of both apps and failed to warn of their dangers.
“Today’s verdict is a referendum — from a jury to an entire industry — that accountability has arrived,” the plaintiffs’ lead attorney said in a statement.
Meta’s shares rose 1% and Alphabet shares rose 0.2%, little changed after the verdict.
Meta disagrees with the ruling and its lawyers are “evaluating our legal options,” a company spokesman said. Google plans to appeal, company spokesman José Castañeda said.
The plaintiffs in the Los Angeles case focused on platform design rather than content, making it harder for the companies to fend off liability.
Snap and TikTok were also defendants in the lawsuit. Both were settled with the plaintiff before it began. The terms of the agreements were not disclosed.
Increasing criticism
Big tech companies in the US have faced increasing criticism over the past decade over the safety of children and teenagers. The debate has now shifted to courts and state governments. The US Congress has declined to pass comprehensive legislation regulating social media.
At least 20 states last year passed laws 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 the use of cell phones in schools and require users to verify their age to open a social media account. NetChoice, a trade association backed by tech companies like Meta and Google, is seeking to invalidate age verification requirements in court.
A separate social media addiction lawsuit filed by several states and school districts against tech companies is expected to be heard this summer in federal court in Oakland, California.
Another state trial is set to begin in Los Angeles in July, said Matthew Bergman, one of the attorneys leading the cases for the plaintiffs. It will involve Instagram, YouTube, TikTok and Snapchat.
Separately, a New Mexico jury on Tuesday found Meta violated state law in a lawsuit filed by the state attorney general, who accused the company of misleading users about the safety of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp and of enabling the sexual exploitation of children on those platforms.
