DST News: Meta has reached a settlement with a second teenage plaintiff who accused the company of designing addictive social media platforms that contributed to her mental health problems. The agreement leaves Snap Inc. as the only remaining defendant in the case ahead of the trial’s opening arguments next week.
The settlement, announced Friday, involves a teenager identified in court documents as K.D.B., who alleged that Meta’s platforms, Instagram and Facebook, were addictive and had negatively affected her mental health. Attorneys representing the plaintiff confirmed the agreement.
The announcement came just one day after Meta reached a separate settlement with another teenage plaintiff, identified as S.J., who had brought similar allegations against the company. The financial and other terms of both settlements remain confidential.
TikTok and YouTube had also reached agreements to resolve claims filed by both teenagers in the weeks leading up to the trial.
“We remain committed to improving safety for kids on social media apps and holding tech companies accountable, and we are pleased to have brought this matter to a just resolution on behalf of our client,” said Emily Jeffcott, trial counsel for K.D.B.
With Meta, TikTok and YouTube reaching settlements, Snap Inc., the parent company of Snapchat, is now the sole remaining defendant in the case. The trial began this week in Los Angeles with jury selection, while opening arguments are scheduled for November 4.
In their lawsuit, K.D.B. and S.J. accused Snap of designing Snapchat features to maximise the amount of time young users spend on the platform. They specifically pointed to features such as Snapstreaks, Snapscores and filters, alleging that these encourage compulsive use and contribute to serious mental and physical health problems, including self-harm.
The case is the fourth bellwether trial in a consolidated group of lawsuits involving Instagram, YouTube, TikTok and Snap. More than 1,600 plaintiffs, including over 350 families and more than 250 school districts, are involved in the wider litigation. They accuse the technology companies of knowingly developing addictive platforms that harm the mental health of young users.
Social media companies have historically received broad legal protection under Section 230, a provision added to the Communications Act of 1934 that generally shields internet companies from liability for content posted by their users.
Meta, which owns Instagram and Facebook, has repeatedly denied deliberately designing its platforms to be harmful or addictive to teenagers.
Previous verdict against Meta and YouTube
In March, a jury in a landmark social media addiction trial in Los Angeles found Meta and Google’s YouTube negligent in the design or operation of their platforms.
The jury concluded that the companies’ negligence was a substantial factor in causing harm to a plaintiff identified by the initials K.G.M. It also found that Meta and Google had failed to adequately warn users about the potential dangers associated with Instagram and YouTube.
The jury awarded K.G.M., who is now 20 years old, $3 million in compensatory damages. Meta was held responsible for 70% of the harm, while YouTube was assigned the remaining 30%.
In August, Meta also agreed to settle a broader social media addiction lawsuit brought by California and several other states for approximately $18 billion. The settlement involved a group of 29 states. However, court documents stated that Meta denied the allegations and any liability to the plaintiffs.
In a statement to NBC News on Friday, a Meta spokesperson said the company would continue defending itself in court and stood by its record on protecting young users.
“We’ve spent more than a decade building protections for teens, and our agreement with 52 bipartisan attorneys general goes even further with strict time limits, no access at night, and no notifications during school hours,” the statement said. “We hope the rest of our industry joins us in setting this new standard.”
A Snap spokesperson referred NBC News to an earlier statement issued by the company, which defended Snapchat’s design and approach to social media.
“From the beginning, Snapchat was built differently from traditional social media: it opens to a camera, not a feed, not a ranking of what other people post or other social comparison metrics,” the statement said.
The company added that it had introduced safety measures, protective tools and educational resources for its users. It also maintained that the allegations misrepresented both the plaintiffs’ experiences and the way Snapchat was designed.
Source: NBC NEWS
