Meta and Snap Face Another High-Stakes Trial Over Alleged Harm to Young Users

Meta and Snap are facing another major legal test Wednesday as jury selection begins in Los Angeles in a trial over claims that their platforms encouraged compulsive use and contributed to serious mental health problems in two teenagers.

The case is the second involving individual plaintiffs who allege that social media companies deliberately designed addictive products. Its outcome could help shape thousands of lawsuits seeking to hold technology companies responsible for alleged harm to young users.

The plaintiffs, identified in court papers as S.J., a 16-year-old from Illinois, and K.D.B., an 18-year-old from Mississippi, say features such as autoplay and infinite scrolling drove excessive use. They allege that their experiences contributed to depression, anxiety and eating disorders.

Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg, Instagram head Adam Mosseri and Snap chief executive Evan Spiegel are expected to testify. The trial, overseen by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Carolyn Kuhl, is expected to last several weeks.

Both plaintiffs initially sued Meta, Snap, TikTok and YouTube in 2023. TikTok and YouTube settled with both before trial, while Meta also settled with S.J. The remaining proceedings concern both teenagers’ claims against Snap and K.D.B.’s claims against Meta, which owns Instagram and Facebook.

Meta and Snap have asked Kuhl to separate the cases, arguing that a joint trial could confuse jurors by mixing evidence about two plaintiffs with different circumstances. According to Reuters, the judge had not ruled on that request ahead of Wednesday’s proceedings.

The teenagers described staying awake for hours scrolling through social media, struggling to concentrate in class and engaging in self-harm. They are seeking unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.

Meta disputes the allegations and says it has spent more than a decade building protections for teenagers. The company argues that young people’s mental health reflects multiple influences, including personal circumstances. In K.D.B.’s case, Meta says she used TikTok substantially more than Instagram or Facebook and maintains that other factors played a significant role in her struggles.

Snap also rejects the claims. The company says Snapchat differs from traditional social networks because it opens to a camera rather than a feed ranking other users’ posts. It points to safeguards and says the allegations misrepresent the plaintiffs’ experiences and the platform’s design.

The lawsuits are among more than 3,000 cases consolidated in Los Angeles Superior Court. They were selected as bellwethers, meaning their outcomes could influence negotiations and litigation strategies in the remaining cases.

A central dispute concerns Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, a federal law that generally protects platforms from liability for user-generated content. The companies argue that the provision shields them from these claims.

The trial judge disagreed that Section 230 barred challenges involving platform design and allowed the teenagers’ lawsuits to proceed. The stakes increased in March, when a Los Angeles jury awarded $6 million to a young woman identified as Kaley G.M., finding Meta and YouTube negligent. Meta is appealing, arguing that Section 230 should have prevented her claims from reaching trial.

Other scheduled cases have ended in settlements or withdrawals, making this trial another important test of whether individual plaintiffs can connect specific injuries to social media use. More than 3,800 related lawsuits brought by states, school districts and individuals are pending in federal court in California, according to court records.

In August, Meta reached settlements worth up to $18 billion over claims brought by nearly every US state and territory. The agreement included changes to teenagers’ access to Instagram and Facebook. The individual lawsuits now place the disputed connection between platform design and alleged psychological harm before another jury in Los Angeles.