Posted on 03/25/2026 11:43:51 AM PDT by Libloather
A Los Angeles jury found Wednesday that Meta’s Instagram and Google’s YouTube harmed a young user with features designed to hook kids — in a bombshell verdict that “shakes Big Tech’s predatory business model to its core.”
The high-profile case involved a 20-year-old woman who claimed she became dangerously obsessed with the apps at a young age because they were deliberately built to be addictive, using features like infinite scroll and autoplay.
The tech giants were found liable for $3 million in damages. The multi-million-dollar judgment is likely to grow, as the jury of seven women and five men will continue to deliberate on punitive damages the companies should pay for acting with malice.
The bellwether outcome could now influence thousands of similar cases against the two most powerful tech companies — and their peers — brought by parents, states and school districts.
At least half of American teens use YouTube or Instagram daily, according to the Pew Research Center.
Snap and TikTok were also defendants in the first-of-its-kind trial, however, both settled with the plaintiff before it began.
The verdict is an “earthquake that shakes Big Tech’s predatory business model to its core,” according to Sacha Haworth, executive director of the online safety watchdog Tech Oversight Project.
“This trial was proof that if you put CEOs like Mark Zuckerberg on the stand before a judge and jury of their peers, the tech industry’s wanton disregard for people will be on full display,” Haworth said in a statement.
The plaintiff, only known as K.G.M., said she started using social media apps at just 6 years old, and her addiction fueled depression, anxiety and severe mental health struggles, including body dysmorphia and thoughts of self-harm.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Several years ago there were some successful lawsuits against Vegas casinos by people who got addicted to gambling. The casinos responded by putting up signs warning about it, with a toll free phone number for Gamblers Anonymous. The lawsuits went away after that.
Dopamine is a drug.
Social media knows what to push and to whom to trigger a dopamine rush and crafts their individual feeds to do it.
That’s intent and culpability.
"Nature, Mr. Allnut, is what we are put in this world to rise above." — Rose Sayer
The “meta” made me do it😂
Forks made me fat….
“Don’t be stupid.” should cover just about all of it don’t you think?
Looks like a big opportunity for me to make huge bucks.
I’ve been online since my son called one day and said, “Mom, there’s this greaat new thing called a computer. Drive down to Staples and get the best one they have.”
Friends from miles away came to see this miracle.....and I’ve been online ever since. Lots of witnesses, I’ve been posting here since Lewinsky.
So we can sue anyone who advertises to get sales or hits, no one is responsible for their behavior, just sheep. Got it
Don’t take a stroll on the freeway.
wy69
Don’t take a stroll on the freeway.
wy69
Losers whose lives turn out awful are of course going to blame it on something completely unrelated like a creepy website.
And because the people running the website are rich that of course makes them guilty and the morons entitled to fleece them. Right?
If you have a kid who is nutty and gets taken by an online perv or scammer, it's not the fault of the website.
If your kids are out of line when they get on their phones, smash their phones. Beat their asses. Ground them for a month. DC their online access. Be a parent. Show a backbone.
But don't go to court and act like an idiot.
Females: Don't side with these loser idiots online, which you all are doing.
I finna need 10 million from Coca Cola
YouTube dropping damned ads in the middle of stuff I’m watching gives me anger issues. How much is that worth?
$7.99 a month. Worth every penny!
Yes, Meta and Google have a realistic chance of winning (or at least significantly narrowing or reversing) on appeal, though it will be an uphill battle in some respects—exactly as you noted.
The jury's factual findings are strong for the plaintiff and very difficult to overturn, but appeals in California civil cases focus heavily on legal errors, not re-weighing the evidence. This verdict (issued today in Los Angeles Superior Court in the case of plaintiff K.G.M., a now-20-year-old woman) is a landmark bellwether, but it's far from the final word.
The class action lawsuit adverts have already started.
Well Australia brought in age restrictions for social media so that in a way might be the outcome of this verdict. Whether or not enacted by legislature the companies themselves might begin to enforce it if this spreads wider.
They hired behavioral experts to change the algorithms not to sell more product but to intentionally fuel addiction.
Their own internal documentation showed they knew what they were doing, that it was harmful, and they not only continued it, but ramped it up.
Let's say you make a product, paint for instance. You become aware that teenage minors are "huffing" it to get high. You then decide that instead of trying to make the paint less addictive or less intoxicating, you instead make it more addictive and possibly more harmful. You even track the metrics to show how well it works.
You are absolutely liable and should consider yourself lucky if you only get fined instead of getting fined and sentenced to prison.
So if I buy a product I not only don’t need but may be potentially harmful to me because of advertising, I can sue them?
Mind you I think all social media is worthless and detrimental, but does the consumer have no responsibility?
Are alcohol companies responsible for alcoholism?
You're making the plaintiff's case. It is illegal to market alcohol to minors.
Dont get me wrong I think social media has destroyed a generation and wish it gone, but if the parents leave alcohol out in the house and the kids drink it, are the alcohol companies responsible?
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