By Michaela Gordoni
Meta, TikTok and YouTube will go to trial this week over allegations that their platforms are responsible for youth’s social media addiction.
The trial will take place this week in the California Superior Court.
The 19-year-old plaintiff, identified as K.G.M., fights against the companies. She claims she became addicted to the companies’ platforms at a young age because of their attention-grabbing design. She says the apps caused her depression and suicidal thoughts, Reuters reported.
The plaintiff’s attorney, Matthew Bergman, said, “They will be under a level of scrutiny that does not exist when you testify in front of Congress,” because this is the first time the tech companies will defend themselves — at trial — over harm their products have caused.
The plaintiff’s suit is one of many similar cases expected to go to trial this year
Related: Landmark Lawsuit Seeks to Hold Meta Accountable for Addictive Technology
A jury will determine whether the companies were negligent.
“This is really a test case,” said Clay Calvert, a media lawyer at the American Enterprise Institute, a pro-business think tank. “We’re going to see what happens with these theories.”
CEO of Meta, Mark Zuckerberg, is expected to stand at the trial. Snapchat’s CEO was also expected to take the stand, but Snap settled with the plaintiff on Jan. 20.
YouTube plans to argue that the company’s platforms are fundamentally different from social media platforms such as Instagram and TikTok, while Meta will argue that its products don’t cause mental health issues.
TikTok declined to offer insight on how it will defend its case. The Mountain Democrat reported the plaintiff’s legal team will borrow strategies used against the tobacco industry in the 1990s and 2000s.
YouTube, TikTok and Meta have made efforts to make their platforms safer for young people in recent years. For this case, they’ve all hired lawyers who have represented corporations involved in addiction.
“These companies are using every lever of influence that you can imagine,” said Julie Scelfo, founder of Mothers Against Media Addiction. “It can be very confusing for parents who to trust.”
On Friday, Meta halted children’s access to AI characters. It said that in “the coming weeks” teens won’t be allowed to access the bots until an “updated experience” is ready, KIRO 7 reported.
This ban applies to anyone who gave Meta a birthday that makes them a minor and “people who claim to be adults but who we suspect are teens based on our age prediction technology.”
Teens can still use Meta’s chat assistant, just not the characters.
While the outcome of this trial will change the social media landscape, time will tell just how much.
Read Next: Meta Broke This Texas Law. Now It Must Pay Billions to Settle Lawsuit
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