Exclusive | YouTube staffers deliberately aimed for viewer addiction, killed safety tools for kids: court docs

YouTube employees admitted that their goal was “viewer addiction” and killed proposed safety tools for kids because they wouldn’t provide a sufficient “ROI” — financial lingo for “return on investment,” according to bombshell court documents reviewed by The Post.The explosive records, which include internal chat logs and presentations from YouTube employees, were unsealed ahead of a series of landmark trials slated for this summer in Oakland, Calif.in the US District Court of Northern California.

Google-owned YouTube, Meta, Snap and TikTok are listed as defendants.In a deposition in the case last March, John Harding, a longtime vice president of engineering at YouTube, was confronted by plaintiffs attorneys with an internal email from June 7, 2012, in which a YouTube employee, whose name was redacted, stated the “goal is not viewership, it’s viewer addiction.”Harding confirmed that the email was authentic but dodged responsibility, claiming that staffers were discussing a “video creation app” that “wasn’t event built for viewers.” The next portion of the exchange between Harding and the attorney is redacted.The federal case is part of what legal experts and critics have called a “Big Tobacco” moment for Google and Meta.Both companies were found liable last week for fueling social media addiction in a separate landmark case brought in California state court on behalf of a 20-year-old woman known as KGM.The shock revelations from the Oakland federal case contradict public statements from executives who have claimed the app was never meant to be addictive and any harmful outcomes for kids are due to third-party content rather than its intentional app design choices.During the state trial last month, YouTube executive Cristos Goodrow testified that the app was “not designed to maximize time” and the company doesn’t “want anybody to be addicted.”This summer’s federal case in Oakland, however, includes an internal YouTube ...