Social media trial to examine claims of harm to young people, expert says

Two teenage plaintiffs who say social media caused them to develop serious mental health problems will take Meta Platforms and Snap to trial in Los Angeles on Wednesday (October 28) in the latest test of claims raised in thousands of lawsuits over social media's impact on young people.

The case is only the second to go to trial involving individual plaintiffs who allege that social media companies deliberately designed their platforms to be addictive. Social media companies lost the first such trial to the tune of $6 million in damages in March.

Plaintiffs referred to in court papers as S.J., a 16-year-old girl from Illinois, and K.D.B., an 18-year-old woman from Mississippi, have said they began using YouTube as early as age 3 or 4 and the other platforms around age 9. They say autoplay, infinite scroll and other features drove them to compulsive use, and they developed depression, anxiety and eating disorders as a result.

The trial, which begins with the jury selection process on Wednesday (October 28), is expected to run for several weeks. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Instagram head Adam Mosseri and Snap CEO Evan Spiegel are expected to testify.

The two plaintiffs initially sued TikTok and Alphabet’s YouTube in addition to Meta and Snap. Both reached settlements with TikTok and YouTube ahead of trial, and the Illinois plaintiff also reached a settlement with Meta. Wednesday’s (October 28) trial covers claims by both plaintiffs against Snap, and the Mississippi plaintiff's claims against Meta.

Meta and Snap have asked Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Carolyn Kuhl, presiding over the proceedings, to split the cases into separate trials, arguing that trying them together would unfairly mix up the evidence for jurors. The judge has not yet ruled on that request.

Gregory Keating, professor of law and philosophy at the USC Gould school of law, told Reuters, "what these media defendants might find to be merely entertaining, the plaintiffs are arguing is in fact addictive and harmful to people whose brains are still developing and who are not yet mature, and the result is that people suffer serious mental health issues as these two plaintiffs alleged they did."

“These are very big cultural phenomenon cases," Keating said. "Yes, they are lawsuits. Yes, they have standard issues about harm and causation and strategy and so on, but they're also cultural barometers, so they're quite remarkable in that regard,” Keating concluded.

A Meta spokesperson said the company disagrees with the claims made against it and has built protections into its platforms for a decade.

A Snap spokesperson said its Snapchat platform is different from traditional social media because it does not open to a feed or a ranking of what other people post. The company has built safeguards into its platform, the spokesperson said.

Emily Jeffcott, an attorney representing the Mississippi plaintiff, said in a statement ahead of the trial that "we look forward to educating the jury about the dangers of features like endless feeds, autoplay and streaks and how Meta – and allegedly Snap as well – have implemented and emphasized these features."

Production & Editing: Matt Silverstein, Writing: Diana Novak Jones and Matt Silverstein/Reuters