A Los Angeles jury has found Meta and YouTube liable for a young woman's childhood addiction to social media, in a landmark case that may have implications for hundreds of similar cases in the US.
The jury awarded the 20-year-old woman, known as Kaley, $3m (£2.2m) in damages, with Meta found to be 70% responsible for her harm and YouTube responsible for 30%.
According to a report by the BBC, this verdict comes after a five-week trial, during which Kaley's lawyers argued that Meta and YouTube had built "addiction machines" that harmed the young woman's mental health.
Response from Meta and YouTube
Meta said in a statement: "We respectfully disagree with the verdict and are evaluating our legal options." A spokesperson for Google, the owner of YouTube, stated: "We disagree with the verdict and plan to appeal. This case misunderstands YouTube, which is a responsibly built streaming platform, not a social media site."
Kaley's lawyers argued that features of Instagram, such as infinite scroll, were designed to be addictive, and that Meta's growth goals were aimed at getting young people to use its platforms.
Implications of the Verdict
The verdict may have significant implications for social media companies, with Mike Proulx, a research director for Forrester, stating that the back-to-back verdicts underline a "breaking point" between social media companies and the public.
Another case against Meta and other social media platforms is set to begin in June in California federal court, according to reports.
Testimony and Evidence
During the trial, Mark Zuckerberg, Meta's chairman and chief executive, relied on his company's longstanding policy of not allowing users under the age of 13 on any of its platforms.
Kaley testified that she started using Instagram at the age of nine and YouTube at the age of six, and encountered no attempts to block her due to her age.
