Jury in Los Angeles finds Meta and YouTube liable in landmark social media addiction trial

Meta and YouTube must pay millions in damages to a 20-year-old woman after a California jury found the social media giant and video streamer were designed to hook young users without concern for their well-being.

The decision, delivered Wednesday in a first-of-its-kind lawsuit, could influence the outcome of thousands of similar cases accusing social media companies of deliberately harming children.

The plaintiff, identified by her initials KGM, testified that she became addicted to social media as a child and that this addiction worsened her mental health struggles. After more than 40 hours of deliberations, a majority of jurors agreed and awarded her $3 million US in damages.

Jurors later recommended an additional $3 million US in punitive damages after finding the companies acted with malice, oppression or fraud in harming children through their platforms. The judge will have the final say over how much damages are awarded.

This is the second verdict against Meta this week after a jury in New Mexico determined the company harms children's mental health and safety, violating state law.

Meta, the parent of Instagram and Facebook, and Google-owned YouTube issued statements disagreeing with the verdict and vowing to explore their legal options, which include appeals.

Google spokesperson Jose Castañeda said in the company's statement that the case "misunderstands YouTube, which is a responsibly built streaming platform, not a social media site."

A Meta spokesperson said teen mental health is "profoundly complex and cannot be linked to a single app."

Jurors listened to about a month of lawyers' arguments, testimony and evidence, and they heard from the plaintiff herself — identified as K.G.M. in documents, or Kaley, as her lawyers have called her during the trial — as well as Meta leaders Mark Zuckerberg and Adam Mosseri. YouTube's CEO, Neal Mohan, was not called to testify.

Kaley, who says she began using YouTube when she was six years old and Instagram at age nine, told the jury she was on social media "all day long" as a child.

Lawyers representing Kaley, led by Mark Lanier, were tasked with proving that the respective defendants' negligence was a substantial factor in causing Kaley's harm.

They pointed to specific design features they said were designed to "hook" young users, like the "infinite" nature of feeds that allowed for an endless supply of content, autoplay features and even notifications.

The jurors were told not to take into account the content of the posts and videos that Kaley saw on the platforms. That's because tech companies are shielded from legal responsibility for content posted on their sites thanks to Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act.

Meta consistently argued that Kaley had struggled with her mental health separate from her social media use, often pointing to her turbulent home life.