Lawyers spar in closing arguments for landmark social media addiction trial

In closing arguments for the first social media addiction trial to make tech giants face a jury, the plaintiff's lawyer lambasted social platforms.

LOS ANGELES — In closing arguments for the first social media addiction trial to make tech giants face a jury, the plaintiff's lawyer lambasted social platforms for profiting from users' attention, likening their features to a Trojan horse.

The plaintiff, identified in Los Angeles County Superior Court as Kaley and in documents by her initials, K.G.M., is at the center of a bellwether case that could set a legal precedent for whether social media platforms are responsible for causing mental health issues in children.

Her lawsuit accuses social media companies of deliberately designing their platforms to be more addictive to children for profit. K.G.M., who was a minor at the time of the incidents outlined in her lawsuit, testified last month that her nearly nonstop use of social media “really affected [her] self-worth.”

“How do you make a child never put down the phone? That's called the engineering of addiction. They engineered it, they put these features on the phones," K.G.M.'s lawyer Mark Lanier said in court Thursday. "These are Trojan horses: They look wonderful and great ... but you invite them in and they take over."

Lanier compared Instagram's endless scroll and YouTube's autoplay to free tortilla chips at a restaurant that patrons can mindlessly snack on. He said engagement metrics and notifications keep users hooked, adding that teenagers especially struggle to regulate their use because they crave social approval and lack the resolve an adult might have.