TikTok agreed to settle a landmark lawsuit alleging that social media platforms deliberately addict and harm children just before trial was set to begin, plaintiff attorneys confirmed. With TikTok out of the Los Angeles courtroom, jury selection started this week in Los Angeles County Superior Court against Meta’s Instagram and Google’s YouTube, while a separate defendant, Snap Inc., had already settled the case last week for an undisclosed sum. Attorneys said the trial is one of several “bellwether” cases designed to test arguments before a jury and potentially guide what happens in other lawsuits.
The case centers on a 19-year-old plaintiff identified only by the initials “KGM,” whose claims are expected to determine how thousands of similar lawsuits progress, according to Clay Calvert, a nonresident senior fellow of technology policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute. Calvert said KGM and two other plaintiffs were selected for bellwether trials—test cases for both sides to evaluate how their arguments play out before a jury and what damages, if any, may be awarded.
Plaintiff attorney Joseph VanZandt said in a Tuesday statement that TikTok remains a defendant in the other personal injury cases, but that the trial would proceed as scheduled against Meta and YouTube. Jury selection is expected to take at least a few days, with 75 potential jurors questioned each day through at least Thursday, court officials and reporting said.
Sacha Haworth, executive director of the nonprofit Tech Oversight Project, said in a statement that this was only the first case. “This was only the first case — there are hundreds of parents and school districts in the social media addiction trials that start today, and sadly, new families every day who are speaking out and bringing Big Tech to court for its deliberately harmful products,” Haworth said.
According to the lawsuit described in court filings and reporting, KGM says she began using social media at an early age and became addicted to the technology, with that addiction exacerbating depression and suicidal thoughts. The lawsuit argues the harm stemmed from deliberate design choices by the companies aimed at making their platforms more addictive to children in order to boost profits, an argument the plaintiffs say could potentially sidstep legal shields that protect tech companies from liability for content posted by third parties—specifically the First Amendment and Section 230.
The suit alleges that the platforms’ design features are intended to maximize youth engagement, borrowing behavioral and neurobiological techniques associated with slot machines and exploited by the cigarette industry. “Borrowing heavily from the behavioral and neurobiological techniques used by slot machines and exploited by the cigarette industry, Defendants deliberately embedded in their products an array of design features aimed at maximizing youth engagement to drive advertising revenue,” the lawsuit says.
Plaintiffs also contend they are the direct targets of those alleged design choices. “Plaintiffs are not merely the collateral damage of Defendants’ products,” the lawsuit says. “They are the direct victims of the intentional product design choices made by each Defendant. They are the intended targets of the harmful features that pushed them into self-destructive feedback loops.”
Meta and Google dispute the allegations. Meta’s defense points to safeguards the company said it has added over the years and argues it is not liable for third-party content on its platforms, according to a recent blog post. In that post, Meta said: “Recently, a number of lawsuits have attempted to place the blame for teen mental health struggles squarely on social media companies. But this oversimplifies a serious issue. Clinicians and researchers find that mental health is a deeply complex and multifaceted issue, and trends regarding teens’ well-being aren’t clear-cut or universal. Narrowing the challenges faced by teens to a single factor ignores the scientific research and the many stressors impacting young people today, like academic pressure, school safety, socio-economic challenges and substance abuse.”
Meta spokesperson also said Monday the company strongly disagreed with the allegations and was “confident the evidence will show our longstanding commitment to supporting young people.” In a statement, José Castañeda, a Google spokesperson, said the allegations against YouTube were “simply not true” and that “Providing young people with a safer, healthier experience has always been core to our work.” TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.
Executives, including Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, are expected to testify, and the trial is set to last six to eight weeks. The case arrives as multiple lawsuits have filed this year seeking to hold social media companies responsible for harms to children’s mental well-being, including a federal bellwether trial beginning in June in Oakland that will represent school districts that have sued social media platforms.
In addition, more than 40 state attorneys general have filed lawsuits against Meta, alleging it is harming young people and contributing to a youth mental health crisis by deliberately designing features on Instagram and Facebook. TikTok faces similar lawsuits in more than a dozen states, and in New Mexico, jury selection is set to begin next week for a separate trial over allegations that Meta failed to protect young users from sexual exploitation following an undercover online investigation.