Jury Selection Starts in Social Media Addiction Trial vs Tech Giants

Jury selection began this week in a landmark trial in Los Angeles County Superior Court, where Meta, ByteDance and Google face allegations that their social media platforms, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube, deliberately designed addictive features that harm children.

The case centers on claims by three plaintiffs, including a 19-year-old identified only as KGM, who alleges that early and extensive use of these platforms led to addiction, worsening depression and suicidal thoughts. The lawsuit accuses the companies of embedding design elements, such as personalized algorithms, infinite scrolling and autoplay, inspired by slot machine mechanics and tobacco industry tactics, to maximize youth engagement and advertising revenue. "Plaintiffs are not merely the collateral damage of defendants' products," the suit states. "They are the direct victims of the intentional product design choices made by each defendant. They are the intended targets of the harmful features that pushed them into self-destructive feedback loops."

This bellwether trial, the first time these companies will defend such claims before a jury, could influence thousands of similar lawsuits nationwide. Snap Inc., the...