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<\/div>\nA Los Angeles jury on Wednesday found Meta and Alphabet\u2019s Google negligent for designing social media platforms that are harmful to young people, in a $6 million verdict that will serve as a bellwether for numerous similar cases.<\/p>\n
The jury found Meta liable for $4.2 million in damages and Google for $1.8 million, small amounts for two of the world\u2019s most valuable companies with annual capital spending over $100 billion each.<\/p>\n
The Los Angeles trial is meant to serve as a bellwether, or test case, for the thousands of similar lawsuits consolidated in California state courts.<\/p>\n
Related:<\/strong> Meta Loses Insurance for Defense in Major Social Media Addiction Litigation<\/a><\/p>\n \u2018Accountability Has Arrived\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n The case involves a 20-year-old woman, a minor when the case began who is known in court by her first name Kaley. She said she became addicted to Google\u2019s YouTube and Meta\u2019s Instagram at a young age because of their attention-grabbing design, such as the \u201cinfinite scroll\u201d that encourages users to keep looking at new posts.<\/p>\n The jury found Google and Meta were negligent in the design of both apps and failed to warn about their dangers.<\/p>\n \u201cToday\u2019s verdict is a referendum \u2014 from a jury, to an entire industry \u2014 that accountability has arrived,\u201d the plaintiff\u2019s lead counsel said in a statement.<\/p>\n Meta and Google disagree with the verdict and plan to appeal, spokespeople for each company said.<\/p>\n Shares of Meta closed up 0.3%, and Google parent Alphabet finished 0.2% higher.<\/p>\n U.S. law strongly protects social media companies from liability for what is on their platforms, but the plaintiff in the Los Angeles proceeding focused on platform design rather than content.<\/p>\n The verdict is a \u201csetback\u201d for Meta and Google, said Gil Luria, a technology sector analyst at investment firm D.A. Davidson.<\/p>\n \u201cThis process will likely get dragged out through future cases and appeals, but eventually may cause these companies to put in consumer safeguards that may dampen growth,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Snap and TikTok were also defendants in the trial. Both settled<\/a> with the plaintiff before it began. Terms of the agreements were not disclosed.<\/p>\n Mounting Criticism<\/strong><\/p>\n Large technology companies in the U.S. have faced mounting criticism in the last decade over child and teen safety. The debate has now shifted to courts and state governments. The U.S. Congress has declined to pass comprehensive legislation regulating social media.<\/p>\n At least 20 states enacted laws last year on social media usage and children, according to the nonpartisan National Conference of State Legislatures, an organization that tracks state laws<\/a>.<\/p>\n The legislation includes bills that regulate the use of cellphones in schools and require users to verify their ages to open a social media account. NetChoice, a trade association backed by tech companies such as Meta and Google, is seeking to invalidate age verification requirements in court.<\/p>\n U.S. senators Marsha Blackburn, a Republican, and Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat, in statements after the verdict, called on Congress to pass legislation<\/a> directing social media companies to design their platforms with kids\u2019 safety in mind.<\/p>\n A separate social media addiction case brought by several states and school districts against technology companies is expected to go to trial this summer in federal court in Oakland, California.<\/p>\n Another state trial is slated to begin in Los Angeles in July, said Matthew Bergman, one of the attorneys leading the cases for the plaintiffs. It will involve Instagram, YouTube, TikTok and Snapchat.<\/p>\n Separately, a New Mexico jury on Tuesday found Meta violated state law in a lawsuit brought by the state\u2019s attorney general, who accused the company of misleading users about the safety of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp and of enabling child sexual exploitation on those platforms.<\/p>\n Related:<\/strong> Meta Ordered to Pay $375M After Trial Over Child Exploitation, User Safety<\/a><\/p>\n Trial Arguments<\/strong><\/p>\n At trial, the plaintiff\u2019s lawyers sought to show Meta and Google intentionally targeted kids and made decisions that put profit over safety. Meta\u2019s attorneys emphasized the plaintiff\u2019s difficult home life as a child as the cause of her mental health struggles, while YouTube argued her usage of the streaming platform was minimal.<\/p>\n Jurors saw internal documents revealing how Meta and Google sought to attract younger users, and heard executives, including Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, take the stand last month to defend company decisions.<\/p>\n When asked about Meta\u2019s decision to lift a temporary ban on beauty filters that some inside Meta warned could be harmful to teen girls, Zuckerberg said he decided to let users express themselves.<\/p>\n \u201cI felt like the evidence wasn\u2019t clear enough to support limiting people\u2019s expression,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n How free speech and content moderation factored into the companies\u2019 decisions is likely to play a part in any appeal.<\/p>\n Topics<\/span> Google<\/a> <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n Was this article valuable?<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n