Overview
- Plaintiff K.G.M., now 20, alleges early use of YouTube and Instagram led to addiction that worsened depression and suicidal thoughts.
- Plaintiffs’ lawyer Mark Lanier showed internal Meta and Google documents, invoked features like infinite scroll and notifications, and argued the platforms were engineered to trigger compulsive use.
- Meta’s opening challenged causation, highlighting the lack of a diagnosis of social media addiction for the plaintiff and pointing to family and interpersonal factors in her medical history.
- Meta and YouTube deny wrongdoing and cite youth-safety measures, with YouTube’s lawyers set to deliver their opening as the six-to-eight-week trial proceeds with expected executive testimony.
- A separate New Mexico trial also opened, alleging Meta failed to protect children from sexual exploitation, while TikTok and Snap previously settled out of the Los Angeles case for undisclosed sums.