US Court Finds Meta and YouTube Liable in Social Media Addiction Lawsuit

A US jury found yesterday that Google’s YouTube and Meta’s Instagram platforms were responsible for a 20-year-old woman’s mental health issues because of the addictive nature of their services. The jury ordered Meta and Google to pay $3 million in compensatory damages and an additional $3 million in punitive damages. Both companies said that they will appeal the verdict.

“For years, social media companies have profited from targeting children while concealing their addictive and dangerous design features,” the lawyers of the plaintiff said in a statement shared with the Wall Street Journal. “Today’s verdict is a referendum—from a jury, to an entire industry—that accountability has arrived.”

The plaintiff said during the trial that her social media addiction was the cause of her FOMO, anxiety, depression, and other mental health issues, such as body dysmorphia. She claimed to have started watching YouTube videos at 6 and created the first of many Instagram accounts at 9.

Social media platforms like YouTube and Instagram use complex algorithms designed to push users to spend more time on these platforms, so that they can see more ads. While Google has a YouTube Kids app for children and Instagram now has teen accounts with daily time limits, these features don’t really change the addictive nature of these platforms.

“Teen mental health is profoundly complex and cannot be linked to a single app. We will continue to defend ourselves vigorously as every case is different, and we remain confident in our record of protecting teens online,” a Meta spokesperson said in a statement. In a separate statement, a Google spokesperson said “This case misunderstands YouTube, which is a responsibly built streaming platform, not a social media site.”

The landmark trial is just one of thousands of similar lawsuits against social media platforms from Meta, Google, ByteDance, and Snapchat. However, it’s too early to tell if yesterday’s verdict may push these companies to better take their users’ health into account.