TikTok settles as social media addiction trial to begin
TikTok agreed to settle a significant social media addiction case just before the trial began, plaintiffs’ attorneys said.
The social video platform was one of three companies, along with Meta’s Instagram and Google’s YouTube, to face allegations that their platforms intentionally addicted and harmed children. The fourth company named in the lawsuit, Snap Inc., Snapchat’s parent company, settled the case last week for an undisclosed sum.
Details of the deal with TikTok were not disclosed and the company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
At the center of the case is a 19-year-old young man identified only by the initials “KGM”. This person’s case could determine how thousands of similar lawsuits against social media companies play out.
Clay Calvert, a nonresident senior fellow in technology policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, said he and two other plaintiffs were selected for lead hearings, essentially test cases to see how each side’s arguments would play out in front of a jury and what, if any, damages could be awarded.
TikTok remains a defendant in other personal injury lawsuits and the trial will proceed as scheduled against Meta and YouTube, plaintiff’s co-lead attorney Joseph VanZandt said Tuesday.
Jury selection begins this week in Los Angeles County Superior Court. This will be the first time the companies will argue their cases in front of a jury, and the outcome could profoundly impact how companies handle children using their businesses and platforms.
The selection process is expected to take at least several days, with 75 potential jurors expected to be questioned daily until at least Thursday.
KGM claims that his use of social media from a young age made him addicted to technology and increased his depression and suicidal thoughts.
More importantly, the lawsuit alleges that this was done through deliberate design choices by companies trying to make their platforms more addictive to children in order to increase their profits. If successful, this argument could circumvent companies’ First Amendment shield and Section 230, which shields tech companies from liability for material posted on their platforms.
“Drawing heavily on behavioral and neurobiological techniques used by war machines and exploited by the cigarette industry, Defendants deliberately incorporated into their products a number of design features intended to maximize youth engagement in order to increase advertising revenue,” the lawsuit says.
Executives, including Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, are expected to testify at the hearing, which will last six to eight weeks. Experts found similarities with the Big Tobacco cases that led to a 1998 settlement requiring cigarette companies to pay billions of dollars in health care costs and restrict marketing targeting minors.
Tech companies dispute allegations that their products intentionally harm children and argue that they are not responsible for content posted on their sites by third parties, citing numerous safeguards they have added over the years.
Australia’s Associated Press is the beating heart of Australian news. AAP is Australia’s only independent national news channel and has been providing accurate, reliable and fast-paced news content to the media industry, government and corporate sector for 85 years. We inform Australia.
