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Three of the world’s largest tech companies face a landmark trial in Los Angeles this week, accused of knowingly addicting and harming children through their platforms. The statement mentioned Meta’s Instagram, ByteDance’s TikTok and Google’s YouTube.
Jury selection begins this week in Los Angeles County Superior Court. It marks the first time the companies have argued their cases in front of a jury, and the outcome could have far-reaching consequences for their businesses and the way they manage child users. The selection process is expected to last several days, with 75 potential jurors being questioned daily through Thursday.
Snapchat’s parent company, Snap Inc., which was also named in the lawsuit, settled last week for an undisclosed amount.
At the center of the case is a 19-year-old man who goes by the initials “KGM,” and his case could determine the outcome of thousands of other similar lawsuits against social media companies. Clay Calvert, a nonresident senior fellow for technology policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, said she and two other plaintiffs have been selected for a bellwether trial, essentially a test case for both sides to see how their arguments would play out in front of a jury and what damages, if any, might be awarded.
KGM claims she grew up using social media, which made her addicted to technology and exacerbated depression and suicidal thoughts. Importantly, the lawsuit claims, this is accomplished through deliberate design choices made by companies seeking to make their platforms more addictive for children in order to increase profits. That argument, if successful, could sidestep the company’s First Amendment protections and Section 230, which protects tech companies from liability for material posted on their platforms.
“Defendants borrowed heavily from behavioral and neurobiological techniques used in slot machines and exploited by the tobacco industry to intentionally embed a series of design features into their products designed to maximize youth engagement in order to drive advertising revenue,” the lawsuit states.
Executives include Yuan CEO Mark ZuckerbergTestimony is expected at the trial, which will last six to eight weeks. expert There are similarities with Big Tobacco’s experiments that led to a 1998 settlement requiring the cigarette companies to pay billions of dollars in medical bills and limit marketing to minors.
“Plaintiffs are not merely collateral damage to Defendants’ products,” the lawsuit states. “They were the direct victims of product design choices intentionally made by each defendant. They were the intended targets of harmful features that pushed them into self-destructive feedback loops.”
The tech companies dispute claims that their products intentionally harm children, saying they have added a series of safeguards over the years and arguing that they are not responsible for content posted by third parties on their sites.
“Recently, many lawsuits have attempted to place the blame for teen mental health issues squarely on social media companies,” Mehta said in a recent blog post. “But this oversimplifies a serious problem. Clinicians and researchers have found that mental health is a very complex and multifaceted issue, and trends regarding teen well-being are not clear or universal. Narrowing the challenges facing teens to a single factor ignores scientific research and the many stressors affecting young people today, such as academic pressure, school safety, socioeconomic challenges, and substance abuse.”
Yuan, Youtube and Tik Tok There was no immediate response to a request for comment Monday.
The case will be the first in a series beginning this year aimed at holding social media companies responsible for harming children’s mental health. A federal bellwether trial will begin in June Auckland, californiawill become the first school district to sue a social media platform for harming children on its behalf.
In addition, more than 40 state attorneys general have filed lawsuits against Meta, claiming that it intentionally designed features to harm young people and exacerbate the youth mental health crisis. Instagram and Facebook Keep kids hooked on its platform. Most cases are filed in federal court, but some are filed in their respective states.
TikTok faces similar lawsuits in more than a dozen states.