TikTok agreed to settlegroundbreaking lawsuit on social media addictionJust before the trial began, the plaintiff’s lawyers confirmed.
The social video platform was one of three companies – along with Meta’s Instagram and Google’s YouTube – to face claims that their platforms deliberately addicted and harmed children. A fourth company named in the lawsuit, Snapchat parent Snap Inc., settled the case last week for an undisclosed amount.
Details of the settlement with TikTok were not disclosed and the company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
At the heart of the case is a 19-year-old identified only by the initials “KGM,” whose case could shape how thousands of other similar lawsuits against social media companies will play out. She and two other plaintiffs have been selected for a civil trial — essentially test cases for both sides to see how their arguments play out in front of a jury and what damages, if any, might be awarded, said Clay Calvert, a nonresident senior fellow of technology policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute.
An attorney for the plaintiff said in a statement Tuesday that TikTok remains a defendant in the remaining personal injury cases, and that the lawsuit against Meta and YouTube will proceed as planned.
Jury selection begins this week in Los Angeles County Superior Court. It’s the first time the companies have argued their case before a jury, and the outcome could have profound implications for their businesses and how they will interact with children using their platforms. The selection process is expected to last at least a few days, with 75 potential jurors being interviewed each day through Thursday. A fourth company named in the lawsuit, Snapchat parent Snap Inc., settled the case last week for an undisclosed amount.
KGM claims her use of social media from a young age addicted her to the technology and exacerbated depression and suicidal thoughts. Importantly, the lawsuit alleges that this happened due to deliberate design choices by companies trying to make their platforms more addictive for children to increase profits. If this argument succeeds, it could circumvent the corporations’ First Amendment shieldSection 230that protects tech companies from liability for material posted on their platforms.
“Defendants have borrowed heavily from the behavioral and neurobiological techniques used by slot machines and exploited by the cigarette industry, and have deliberately embedded a series of design features into their products aimed at maximizing youth engagement to increase advertising revenue,” the lawsuit said.
Executives including Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg are expected to testify at the trial, which will last six to eight weeks. Experts have drawn similarities to the Big Tobacco lawsuits that led to a 1998 settlement that required cigarette companies to pay billions in health care costs and limit marketing to minors.
“Plaintiffs are not merely the collateral damage of Defendants’ products,” the lawsuit said. “They are the direct victims of the intentional product design choices made by each defendant. They are the intended targets of the harmful features that pushed them into a self-destructive feedback loop.”
The tech companies dispute claims that their products intentionally harm children, citing a slew of safeguards they have added over the years and saying they are not liable for content posted on their sites by third parties.
“Recently, a number of lawsuits have attempted to place the blame for teens’ mental health problems squarely on social media companies,” Meta said in a recent blog post. “But this simplifies a serious problem. Clinicians and researchers believe that mental health is an extremely complex and multifaceted problem, and that trends regarding teen well-being are not clear-cut or universal. Limiting the challenges teens face to a single factor ignores the scientific research and the many stressors affecting young people today, such as academic pressure, school safety, socioeconomic issues and substance abuse.”
A spokesperson for Meta said in a statement Monday that the company strongly disagrees with the allegations in the lawsuit and that it is “confident that the evidence will demonstrate our long-standing commitment to supporting young people.”
José Castañeda, a Google spokesman, said Monday that the allegations against YouTube are “simply not true.” In a statement, he said: “Providing young people with a safer, healthier experience has always been at the core of our work.”
TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday.
The case will be the first in a slew of cases starting this year seeking to hold social media companies accountable for harming children’s mental well-being. A federal trial set to begin in June in Oakland, California, will be the first to represent school districts that have sued social media platforms for harming children.
Moreover, more thanForty attorneys general have filed lawsuitsagainst Meta, claiming it harms young people and contributes to the youth mental health crisis by deliberately designing features on Instagram and Facebook that addict children to its platforms. Most cases filed their lawsuits in federal court, but some filed suit in their respective states.
TikTokalso faces similar lawsuits in more than a dozen states.
—By Kaitlyn Huamani and Barbara Ortutay, AP Technology Writers
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