A young woman has successfully sued Meta and YouTube over her childhood addiction to social media. Jurors in Los Angeles found that Meta, which owns Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp, and Google, the owner of YouTube, intentionally built addictive social media platforms that harmed the 20-year old’s mental health. The woman, known as Kaley, was awarded $6m in damages. Jurors found that Kaley should receive $3m in compensatory damages and an additional $3m punitive damages, because they determined Meta and Google “acted with malice, oppression, or fraud” in the way the companies operated their platforms. Meta will be expected to shoulder 70% of Kaley’s damages award, and Google the remaining 30%. Meta and Google said they disagreed with the verdict and intended to appeal. The landmark verdict is potentially setting precedent for thousands of other pending lawsuits nationwide, and the case could reshape how tech companies are held accountable for children’s harm from their products.
