California jurors find YouTube and Meta liable in social media addiction trial
LOS ANGELES (NBC, KYMA) - A bellwether verdict Wednesday in the high-profile trial against tech giants over social media addiction.
A California jury found Meta and YouTube negligent in the design or operation of their social media platforms.
Outside the courtroom, families who say their children were harmed by social media embraced as they celebrated the verdict.
Attorneys and advocates also celebrated the verdict.
"They put 70% on Meta, they put 30% on YouTube, then they gave findings that both of them acted in ways that constitute conduct that should be punished.
We've sent a message with this that you will be held accountable for the features, regardless of whether the children are getting sent pornographic pictures, regardless of whether they're being sexploitated, regardless of those types of issues, just because of the features alone that drive addiction, these companies can be held accountable. That's a huge message for these companies.
If the jury had returned to no the champagne courts would be popping in the boardrooms of Google and Meta, but instead, Mark Zuckerberg has to take a phone call."
Mark Lanier, plaintiff attorney
"It's really validated, but a complete validation of what we've been screaming on the top of rubes about for years. This was not a con. This was a conscious decision that they made. It was not an accident, and parents are not to blame, that's for sure. They knew the harm, right? They knew the damage. They assess the risk, and they move forward anyway.
This is about the thing of being right or wrong. This is not about some business decision. There is a right thing to do and a wrong thing to do, and they are on the wrong side. So for them, for the big tech executives, I want to say something. Stop blaming the parents. It's on you.
This is not over. We know this is a long game. We're headed to D.C. with the evidence we have in hand in this verdict, and we're demanding safety protections and legislation to keep kids safe online from our legislators, and we have a message for them. We don't want any more hearings. We don't want any more loopholes in these bills. We don't want any more of them shielding big tech. Enough is enough. We want them to do their jobs and keep American families safe.
But I really still like to see these companies, you know, do what's needed to keep to design their platforms safely for kids now and in the future, and as we move on to AI, that's even more important, because kids are dying from AI chatbots as we speak, and that's not okay either, so we need to pull them in, or this is going to be out of control."
Julianna Arnold, Executive Director, Parents RISE!
The civil trial centering on a lawsuit filed by a plaintiff identified by the initials KGM, who alleged Meta and YouTube knowingly designed addictive platforms that harmed her mental health when she was a minor, as well as failed to adequately warn users of the dangers of those platforms.
TikTok and Snapchat, who were also named as defendants in KGM's lawsuit, reached settlements ahead of the trial.
On Wednesday, the plaintiff was awarded $3 million in compensatory damage, and the jury is expected to make a determination on punitive damages next.
The verdict comes a day after jurors in a separate trial in New Mexico held Meta liable for failing to protect children from online predators and sexual exploitation on Facebook and Instagram.
The New Mexico jury found Tuesday that Meta violated the state's consumer protection laws and ordered the company to pay $375 million in civil penalties.
