Meta, Google face jury in landmark U.S. addiction trial

Photographer: Alicia Windzio/picture alliance/Getty Images

Meta and Google-owned YouTube were vilified Monday for “engineering addiction” as a landmark social media trial began in earnest in a California court.

The blockbuster trial in front of a Los Angeles jury could establish a legal precedent on whether the social media juggernauts deliberately designed their platforms to lead to addiction in children.

The proceedings are expected to see Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg on the stand next week and Instagram boss Adam Mosseri in the courtroom as early as Wednesday. Besides Instagram, Meta’s platforms include Facebook and WhatsApp.

“This case is about two of the richest corporations in history who have engineered addiction in children’s brains,” plaintiff’s attorney Mark Lanier told the jury in his opening statement.

“This case is as easy as A-B-C,” Lanier said as he stacked children’s toy blocks bearing the letters.

He contended the A was for addicting, the B for brains and the C for children.

“They don’t only build apps; they build traps,” Lanier said, saying Meta and YouTube pursued “addiction by design.”

The case is being treated as a bellwether proceeding because its outcome could set the tone for a tidal wave of similar litigation across the United States.

Social media firms are accused in hundreds of lawsuits of leading young users to become addicted to content and suffer from depression, eating disorders, psychiatric hospitalization and even suicide.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs are borrowing strategies used in the 1990s and 2000s against the tobacco industry, which faced a similar onslaught of lawsuits arguing that companies knowingly sold a harmful product.

The trial before Judge Carolyn Kuhl focuses on allegations that a 20-year-old woman identified as Kaley G.M. suffered severe mental harm because she became addicted to social media as a child.

“This is the first time that a social media company has ever had to face a jury for harming kids,” Social Media Victims Law Center founder Matthew Bergman, whose team is involved in more than 1,000 such cases, told AFP.

The center is a legal organization pursuing social media companies for harm allegedly caused to young people online.

‘Strongly disagree’

Internet titans have argued that they are shielded by Section 230 of the U.S. Communications Decency Act, which frees them of responsibility for what social media users post.

However, this case argues that those firms are culpable for business models designed to hold people’s attention and to promote content that can harm their mental health.

A Meta spokesperson said “we strongly disagree with these allegations and are confident the evidence will show our longstanding commitment to supporting young people.”

The company pointed to recent efforts to provide more safeguards for young people, adding that “we’re always working to do better.”

Jose Castaneda, a YouTube spokesperson, said “the allegations in these complaints are simply not true.”

“Providing young people with a safer, healthier experience has always been core to our work,” he added.

Snapchat and TikTok were named as defendants in the suit, but struck settlement deals before the start of the trial. The terms were not disclosed.

Lawsuits, including some brought by school districts, accusing social media platforms of practices endangering young users are making their way through federal court in northern California and state courts across the country.

A separate lawsuit accusing Meta of putting profit over the wellbeing of young users is also getting under way in New Mexico.

“Our investigation into Meta’s social media platforms demonstrates that they are not safe spaces for children but rather prime locations for predators to trade child pornography and solicit minors for sex,” New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez said in a statement.

Meta has rejected the accusations and vowed to defend itself in court.

By Benjamin Legendre.