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A jury found that social media platforms can be addictive and can have significant health impacts on users. The verdict came after a six-week trial that alleged Meta, YouTube and others have intentionally designed addictive systems and ignored risks in order to maximize business opportunities.
As reported by the New York Times, the ruling could be a significant blow for social media companies because it essentially finds that many common engagement-driving features are potentially responsible for significant harm. This could also prompt further compensation claims.
The case stems from previous testimony submitted as part of a multidistrict litigation against several social media platforms over their efforts to drive growth, as reported by Time magazine. In 2023, a separate case in the Northern District of California alleged that Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, and YouTube had “relentlessly pursued a strategy of growth at all costs, recklessly ignoring the impact of their products on children’s mental and physical health,” per the story.
That led to a jury trial in California, brought by a single plaintiff, who alleged that social media companies had created products that are equally as addictive as cigarettes or digital casinos. The New York Times reported that TikTok and Snap “both settled with the plaintiff for undisclosed terms before the trial started.”
Following weeks of testimony from various representatives, including Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, a jury ruled that the addictive elements of social media platforms negatively impacted the defendant’s mental health.
The defendant was awarded $3 million in compensatory damages, and the jury also awarded an additional $3 million in punitive damages. Meta will pay $4.2 million of that amount, with YouTube to pay $1.8 million.
The case’s findings relate to common social media features, such as infinite scroll and algorithmic recommendations, which could establish legal precedents for cases against other apps.
As such, while the financial penalty in this case will not be a significant blow for Meta, there could be many more billions in claims heading its way, which could derail the company’s plans for major expansion, and bring more scrutiny on its future initiatives.
Indeed, if Meta were to take the same approach to artificial intelligence, or immersive offerings such as virtual reality, the impacts could even be worse. As such, regulators could be forced to take another look at Meta’s coming initiatives to determine the risk.
The ruling comes on the same day as Meta lost another court case in New Mexico, which found that the company failed to protect young users from harm and predatory exposure in its apps.
Meta released two separate statements saying it will challenge both the California verdict and the New Mexico verdict. However, these rulings could set a new bar for social platform safety and change overall engagement approaches as they currently stand.