Zuckerberg, Mosseri to testify as landmark case claims Instagram, YouTube were designed to addict young brains
Meta co-founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg is scheduled to testify as the parent company of Facebook and Instagram stands trial in a civil suit. PHOTO: AFP
A trial involving internet giants Meta and YouTube began Monday in a Los Angeles civil court and could set a major legal precedent regarding the civil liability of social media operators. The plaintiff’s lawyer in the landmark trial said the social media giants “engineered addiction” among their young users.
Meta and Google-owned YouTube “engineered addiction” in children, a lawyer for the plaintiff said on Monday.
“This case is about two of the richest corporations in history who have engineered addiction in children’s brains,” the attorney, Mark Lanier, told the jury in his opening statement.
“I’m going to show you evidence that these companies built machines designed to addict the brains of children, and they did it on purpose,” he added.
The Los Angeles trial before Judge Carolyn Kuhl focuses on allegations that a 20-year-old woman identified as Kayley GM suffered severe mental harm because she became addicted to social media as a child.
“I’m going to talk about how Google and Meta deliberately designed their products, YouTube and Instagram, to hook users and to keep them coming back – not by accident, by design – because addiction is profitable,” the lawyer said.
Lanier told the jurors that he would use evidence from the companies “in their own words” as well as brain science to demonstrate why “‘just put it down’ is never an option”.
The lawyer described Instagram as an “endless feed” of people’s “filtered lives” where users “spend time waiting for social validation”.
YouTube “plays the next video before you can decide to stop”, using an algorithm “that learns what keeps you watching and feeds you more of it, whether you search for it or not”, he said.
Read: France moves to ban social media for users under 15
The trial is expected to see Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg on the stand next week and Instagram boss Adam Mosseri in the courtroom as early as Wednesday.
The trial is being keenly watched because it could establish a legal precedent on whether social media companies deliberately designed their platforms to hook children too vulnerable to look away.
The case is being seen as a bellwether proceeding because its outcome could set the tone for a tidal wave of similar litigation across the US.
Defendants at the trial are Alphabet and Meta, the tech giants behind YouTube and Instagram.
Neil Mohan, the head of YouTube, is also expected to be called.
Social media firms are accused in hundreds of lawsuits of leading young users to become addicted to content that has led to depression, eating disorders, psychiatric hospitalisation and even suicide.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs are borrowing strategies used in the 1990s and 2000s against the tobacco industry, which faced a similar onslaught of lawsuits arguing that companies sold a harmful product.
On Friday, lawyers for the defence unsuccessfully sought to bar plaintiffs from comparing their platforms to tobacco and other addictive products.
“This is the first time that a social media company has ever had to face a jury for harming kids,” Social Media Victims Law Centre founder Matthew Bergman, whose team is involved in more than 1,000 such cases, told AFP.
Also Read: Australia bans under-16s from social media in world-first crackdown
The centre is a legal organisation dedicated to holding social media companies accountable for harm allegedly caused to young people online.
Internet titans have argued that they are shielded by Section 230 of the US Communications Decency Act, which frees them of responsibility for what social media users post.
However, this case argues that those firms are culpable for business models designed to hold people’s attention and to promote content that can harm their mental health.
“The allegations in these complaints are simply not true,” said Jose Castaneda, a YouTube spokesperson.
“Providing young people with a safer, healthier experience has always been core to our work,” he added.
Meta has also rejected the allegations.
Snapchat and TikTok were named as defendants in the suit, but struck settlement deals before the start of the trial. The terms were not disclosed.
Lawsuits, including some brought by school districts, accusing social media platforms of practices endangering young users, are making their way through federal court in Northern California and state courts across the country.
A separate lawsuit accusing Meta of putting profit over the well-being of young users is also getting underway in New Mexico.
“Our investigation into Meta’s social media platforms demonstrates that they are not safe spaces for children but rather prime locations for predators to trade child pornography and solicit minors for sex,” New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez said in a statement.
Meta has rejected the accusations and vowed to defend itself in court.
Jury selection in the Los Angeles case ended on Friday, with Meta dismissing several jurors over their strong opinions about either social media in general or Zuckerberg specifically.
