Google and Meta lose landmark case on social media addiction in the US

US technology behemoths Google and Meta have lost a landmark case on social media addiction in the United States, with courts ruling that the companies are liable to pay $6m in damages to the 20 year-old plaintiff that took the case against both companies.

A jury in Los Angeles found Meta and Google negligent for designing social media applications such as Google’s YouTube and Meta’s Instagram that were extremely harmful to young people.

The court ordered Meta to pay $4.2 in damages and Google $1.8m in a case that has been described as a landmark one that could trigger thousands of other similar cases.

What where Meta and Google accused of? 

The case involved a 20 year-old woman that was named in court as Kaley,

In testimony provided to the court she said that she became addicted to both YouTube and Instagram at a very young age, and that the addiction was created by the way the applications are constructed, which is a combination of attention-grabbing content and ‘infinite scrolling’.

The jury believe that both Meta and Google failed to adequately warn their users about the dangers of using their applications.

What does it mean now? 

Many analysts and tech commentators have said the decision will now finally bring accountability.

Over the last decade there has been growing concern over the harm applications like YouTube and Instagram amongst others were having on adolescents and young children.

However, many of the leading technology players were largely paying lip service to those trying to highlight the growing problem and addictive nature of the applications.

Earlier this year, a social media ban was enacted for those under the age of 16 in Australia.

What happens now? 

Meta and Google vehemently disagree with the court’s ruling and have said that they will appeal the verdict.

Law in the United States protects social media companies from liability in terms of what is on their platforms, however, the plaintiff in LA focused on the design of the platform as opposed to the content it was consuming.