Meta, YouTube found liable for womans debilitating social media addiction in $3M landmark trial

A Los Angeles jury found Wednesday that Meta’s Instagram and Google’s YouTube harmed a young user with features designed to hook kids — in a bombshell verdict that “shakes Big Tech’s predatory business model to its core.”The high-profile case involved a 20-year-old woman, known only by her first name Kaley, who claimed she became dangerously obsessed with the apps at a young age because they were deliberately built to be addictive, using features like infinite scroll and autoplay.The tech giants were found liable for $3 million in compensatory damages for the harm caused.The jury also awarded $3 million in punitive damages.Meta was ultimately found liable for $4.2 million in damages and Google was found liable for $1.8 million.The judgment might be a small amount for two of the world’s most valuable companies; however, the bellwether verdict could now influence thousands of similar cases against the powerful tech companies — and their peers — brought by parents, states, and school districts.At least half of American teens use ​YouTube or Instagram daily, according to the Pew Research Center.Snapchat and TikTok were also defendants ​in the first-of-its-kind trial; however, both settled with the plaintiff before it began.The outcome is an “earthquake that shakes Big Tech’s predatory business model to its core,” Sacha Haworth, executive director of the online safety watchdog Tech Oversight Project, declared.

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By clicking above you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.Never miss a story “This trial was proof that if you put CEOs like Mark Zuckerberg on the stand before a judge and jury of their peers, the tech industry’s wanton disregard for people will be on full display,” Haworth said in a statement.The case was so unprecedented because it bypassed longstanding l...