A Los Angeles jury on Wednesday found Google and Alphabet’s Meta liable for $3 million in damages in a landmark social media addiction lawsuit that will influence thousands of similar cases against technology companies.
Punitive damages for the companies will be decided next. The jury can consider whether Google or Meta products caused physical harm to the plaintiff or whether the companies ignored 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 eye-catching design. The jury found that Google and Meta were negligent in the design of both applications and failed to warn about their dangers.
“Today’s verdict is a referendum, from a jury to an entire industry, that accountability has arrived,” the plaintiff’s lead attorney said in a statement.
Meta shares rose 1% and Alphabet shares rose 0.2%, little changed after the verdict.
Meta disagrees with the verdict and its lawyers are “evaluating our legal options,” a company spokesperson said. Google plans to appeal, company spokesman José Castañeda said.
The plaintiffs in the Los Angeles proceeding focused on the platform’s design rather than the content, making it more difficult for companies to avoid liability.
Snap and TikTok were also accused in the trial. Both were resolved with the plaintiff before it began. Terms of the agreements were not disclosed.
Growing criticism
Big tech companies in the United States have faced increasing criticism in the last decade over the safety of children and teenagers. The debate has now moved to the courts and state governments. The United States Congress has refused to pass comprehensive legislation regulating social media.
At least 20 states enacted laws last year regarding 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 cell phone use in schools and require users to verify their age to open a social media account. NetChoice, a trade association backed by technology companies such as Meta and Google, is seeking to overturn age verification requirements in court.
A separate social media addiction case brought by several states and school districts against technology companies is expected to go to trial this summer in federal court in Oakland, California.
Another state trial is scheduled to begin in Los Angeles in July, said Matthew Bergman, one of the attorneys leading the plaintiffs’ cases. It will involve Instagram, YouTube, TikTok and Snapchat.
Separately, a New Mexico jury found Tuesday that Meta violated state law in a lawsuit filed by the state attorney general, who accused the company of misleading users about the security of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp and of allowing child sexual exploitation on those platforms.
