Social Media: Friend or Foe?
This week in Los Angeles County Superior Court, a landmark trial against the world’s biggest technology companies will commence. Meta, TikTok, and Youtube have been sued for “deliberately addict and harm children.” A fourth company, Snapchat, was named in the lawsuit but settled last week for a sum undisclosed to the public.
Jury selection is to begin this week in the Court and it is the “first time the companies will argue their case before a jury.”
A nineteen year-old identified only by her initials KGM is at the core of this case, as she and two other plaintiffs are the test cases, also known as bellwether trials, to see “how their arguments play out before a jury and what damages, if any, may be awarded.”
The plaintiff’s lead argument is that the defendant companies deliberately designed their platforms to be “more addictive to children to boost profits.” KGM asserts that the use of social media “addicted her to technology” and “exacerbated” psychological issues.
The plaintiffs further express that the defendant companies utilize “the behavioral and neurobiological techniques used by slot machines and exploited by the cigarette industry” to “maximize[] youth engagement.”
If successful, this argument could reduce the shield companies receive from the First Amendment and Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act, a law that insulates companies like the defendants “from liability for material posted on their platforms.”
The defendants however, believe the plaintiffs are oversimplifying the complex issue of mental health. In a blog post, Meta emphasizes that “clinicians and researchers find that mental health is a deeply complex and multifaceted issue, and trends regarding teens’ well-being aren’t clear-cut or universal” and by narrowing such an issue, plaintiffs ignore the various stressors “impacting young people today.”
Regardless of this case’s outcome, it is only one among many. Beginning this year, a wave of lawsuits will seek to hold social media companies accountable for the harm they inflict on children’s mental well-being. This case is not an outlier but an opening signal of a broader reckoning.
Sources:
Barbara Ortutay, Meta, TikTok and YouTube face landmark trial over youth addiction claims, AP News: Technology (Jan. 27, 10:30 am EST) https://apnews.com/article/social-media-trial-kids-addiction-meta-tiktok-youtube-d3a6bf617f2d11521675412ffb275031.
Barbara Ortutay, States sue Meta claiming its social platforms are addictive and harm children’s mental health, AP News: Business (Oct. 24, 2:20 pm EST) https://apnews.com/article/instagram-facebook-children-teens-harms-lawsuit-attorney-general-1805492a38f7cee111cbb865cc786c28.
Barbara Ortutay, How Section 230 helped shape speech on the Internet, AP News (Feb. 22, 10:48 AM EST) https://apnews.com/article/us-supreme-court-technology-social-media-business-internet-eb89baf1fa30e245c030992b48a8a0ff.
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