A Los Angeles County jury has concluded that Meta and Google are to pay $6MN in damages after being negligent in how they designed their platforms and for failing to warn users about the associated risks.
The plaintiff, a young woman, explained that her early and prolonged use of Instagram and YouTube contributed to significant mental health challenges that she linked to the platforms’ design features.
This case highlights indirect risks for companies that rely on social media for marketing, branding, or customer service.
The plaintiff's lead attorney, Mark Lanier of the Lanier Firm, urged the jurors to consider the purpose of punitive damages in light of the companies’ net worths and encourage accountability.
"You can take out a handful, and you're making no difference," he said.
"You can take out two handfuls, and you're making no difference. The last thing in the world they want you to do is focus on what it takes to hold them accountable for what they've done."
Platform Responses to Allegations of Addictive Design
Having filed the case in July 2023, the parent companies of Instagram and YouTube were accused of being liable for harming the mental health of a woman who claimed to be addicted to the two platforms as a child.
This included compulsive behaviors connected to the platforms, including creating extra accounts to inflate likes and followers.
The plaintiff’s attorneys argued that these platforms can contribute to addictive behavior in children, with the plaintiff’s extensive use of these having contributed to her anxiety, depression, and body image issues.
Furthermore, former Meta and Google employees testified that these companies were aware of the risks their platforms posed for children and allegedly did not act decisively.
In response, Meta and Google argued that social media addiction is not a recognized condition, and that their platforms were not designed to be addictive, claiming they were taking steps to improve user experience on their sites.
Whilst acknowledging that internal data had reported some users’ experiences of negative or excessive use cases, the companies did not view this behavior as addictive, with Google arguing that YouTube did not count as a social media platform.
This ruling increases pressure on other social media companies currently facing claims that their design choices directly contributed to youth mental health harms.
In a similar lawsuit earlier this week, a jury in New Mexico found that Meta had violated state consumer protection laws by misleading users about the safety levels of its social media platforms, having to pay $375MN in civil penalties.
This string of legal action cases against social media companies highlights broader claims where these businesses have not sufficiently protected users and enterprises that use their platforms.
Social Media Sites are Getting Less Predictable
For B2B companies, these lawsuits signals that social platforms are becoming less predictable when platform owners do not disclose the safety levels of their services.
Whilst online community platforms on social sites can create a wider audience base, organizations must factor in the risks before deploying customer engagement strategies on these platforms.
Social media platforms will typically determine how content appears and how users interact with features such as autoplay, infinite scroll, or algorithmic recommendations.