A Los Angeles jury has found Meta and YouTube liable for harming a young woman because of the addictive design of their social media platforms, ordering the companies to pay US$6 million ($10.3m) in damages, including US$3m in punitive damages.
Thursday’s verdict hands plaintiffs in more than a thousand similar
pending cases significant leverage and signals to the broader tech industry that juries are prepared to hold social media companies accountable for the mental health toll of their design choices.
The jury answered yes to all seven questions on verdict forms for both companies, finding that Meta and YouTube were negligent in the design and operation of their platforms and that their negligence was a substantial factor in causing harm to the plaintiff.
Jurors also found both companies knew or should have known their services posed a danger to minors, that they failed to adequately warn users of that danger, and that a reasonable platform operator would have done so.
The panel awarded US$3m in compensatory damages, assigning Meta 70% of the responsibility for the plaintiff’s harm – a US$2.1m share – and YouTube the remaining 30%, or US$900,000.
