Los Angeles jury finds Meta and Google responsible for social media addiction in groundbreaking trial

A Los Angeles jury has found Meta and Google liable for a woman’s social media addiction, marking a pivotal moment in legal battles against tech companies. The plaintiff, identified in court as Kaley, a 20-year-old from California, claimed that prolonged use of Instagram and YouTube caused mental health issues. After more than 40 hours of deliberation across nine days, the jury awarded her $3 million in damages and determined that both companies acted with negligence, and potentially malice, in designing addictive platforms. TikTok and Snapchat were also implicated but had settled out of court. The trial featured testimony from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Instagram head Adam Mosseri, both of whom denied claims that social media is addictive, differentiating between ‘clinical addiction’ and ‘problematic use.’ YouTube contested its classification as social media and argued that evidence of addiction was insufficient. This case is seen as a precedent for thousands of similar lawsuits against tech giants, with more than 1,600 plaintiffs—including families and school districts—accusing companies of creating addictive algorithms that harm young users. Lawyers say the case signals that social media companies can be held accountable in court, drawing comparisons to the legal challenges faced by the tobacco industry decades ago.