{"id":898088,"date":"2026-04-09T12:24:38","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T17:24:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/09\/jury-rules-against-meta-and-youtube-in-social-media-addiction-case\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T12:24:38","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T17:24:38","slug":"jury-rules-against-meta-and-youtube-in-social-media-addiction-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/09\/jury-rules-against-meta-and-youtube-in-social-media-addiction-case\/","title":{"rendered":"Jury rules against Meta and YouTube in social media addiction case"},"content":{"rendered":"
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LOS ANGELES, UNITED STATES – FEBRUARY 19: Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg leaves the Federal Courthouse in downtown Los Angeles after defending the company in a landmark social media addiction trial in Los Angeles, United States, on February 19, 2026. (Photo by Jon Putman\/Anadolu via Getty Images)<\/span> (Anadolu via Getty Images)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

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A jury in Los Angeles has found that Meta and YouTube were negligent<\/a> in a closely-watched trial over social media addiction. The companies were ordered to pay $6 million in damages to the woman who said she was harmed by their addictive features as a child.<\/p>\n

The case was brought by a 20-year-old woman, named in court documents as \u201cK.G.M,\u201d who sued Meta, YouTube, TikTok and Snap, saying that she had been harmed by the platforms as a child due to addictive features. TikTok and Snap reached a settlement<\/a> ahead of the trial.<\/p>\n

According to NBC News<\/em><\/a>, Meta was ordered to pay 70 percent of the $3 million in compensatory damages with YouTube taking on the remaining portion. The jury awarded an additional $3 million in punitive damages. \u201cWe respectfully disagree with the verdict and are evaluating our legal options,\u201d a Meta spokesperson said in a statement. \u201cWe disagree with the verdict and plan to appeal.,\u201d Google spokesperson Jos\u00e9 Casta\u00f1eda said in a statement. \u201cThis case misunderstands YouTube, which is a responsibly built streaming platform, not a social media site.\u201d<\/p>\n

The weeks-long trial has been closely watched because it’s the first of many court cases in which plaintiffs have argued that social media platforms harmed minors due to how they were designed. Meta’s lawyers and executives have disputed<\/a> the idea that social media should be considered an “addiction.” CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified <\/a>that the company wants Instagram to be “useful,” and repeatedly accused the plaintiff’s lawyer of “mischaracterizing” his past statements.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the first time in history a jury has heard testimony by executives and seen internal documents that we believe prove these companies chose profits over children,\u201d Joseph VanZandt, one of K.G.M.\u2019s lawyers, said in a statement<\/a> to The New York Times,<\/em><\/p>\n

For Meta, it’s the second legal setback in as many days. The verdict comes one day after a jury in New Mexico ruled against Meta in a trial over child safety issues. The company was ordered to pay $375 million in penalties<\/a>; the company said it would appeal.<\/p>\n

Update, March 25, 2026, 11:22AM PT: <\/strong>Added a statement from Google.<\/p>\n

Update. March 25, 2026, 2:05PM PT:<\/strong> Added details about punitive damages.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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If you buy something through a link in this article, we may earn commission.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES, UNITED STATES – FEBRUARY 19: Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg leaves the Federal Courthouse in downtown Los Angeles after defending the company in a landmark social media addiction trial in Los Angeles, United States, on February 19, 2026. (Photo by Jon Putman\/Anadolu via Getty Images) (Anadolu via Getty Images) A jury in Los Angeles […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":898089,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2849,49,104640],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-898088","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rules","8":"category-youtube","9":"category-youtube-videos"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898088","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=898088"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898088\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/898089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=898088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=898088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=898088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}