Instagram, YouTube addiction trial kicks off in Los Angeles

LOS ANGELES: A California state court case over whether Instagram and YouTube harmed a woman’s mental health through addictive app design kicks off on Monday with opening statements, in a test of whether Big Tech platforms can be held liable for harming kids.

The 20-year-old woman identified as K.G.M. filed the lawsuit against Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta Platforms and Alphabet’s Google, which owns YouTube.

She says the attention-grabbing design of the platforms got her addicted to them at a young age, according to court filings. She alleges the apps fueled her depression and suicidal thoughts and she is seeking to hold the companies liable.

A verdict against the tech companies could smooth the way for similar cases in state court, and shake the industry’s longstanding U.S. legal defense against claims of user harm. Google, Meta, TikTok and Snap face thousands of lawsuits in California.

Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg is expected to be called as a witness at the trial, which is likely to stretch into March. TikTok and Snap settled with K.G.M. before the trial.

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The woman’s lawyers aim to show that the companies were negligent in their design of the apps, that they failed to warn the public about the risks, and that the platforms were a substantial factor in her injuries. If they succeed, the jury will consider whether to award her damages for pain and suffering, and could also impose punitive damages.

Meta and Google plan to defend themselves from the claims by pointing to other factors in K.G.M.’s life, laying out their work on youth safety, and trying to distance themselves from users who upload harmful content.

Under U.S. law, internet companies are largely shielded from liability for material their users post. If the jury in this case rejects that defense, it could pave the way for other lawsuits claiming the platforms are harmful by design.

In addition to cases like K.G.M.‘s in state court, the companies face more than 2,300 similar lawsuits filed by parents, school districts and state attorneys general in federal court. The judge overseeing those is weighing the companies’ liability protections ahead of the first trial over the claims in federal court, which could happen as early as June.

Also Monday, a landmark trial against Meta is kicking off with opening statements in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where the state attorney general has accused the company of exposing children and teens to sexual exploitation on its platforms and profiting from it.

The wave of litigation in the U.S. is part of a global backlash against social media platforms over children’s mental health. Australia and Spain have prohibited access to social media platforms for users under age 16, and other countries are considering similar curbs.