Lawyers representing Meta and Snap will be back in court this week in the latest trial over claims their apps were designed to get teens and children hooked.
Jury selection begins Wednesday in Los Angeles Superior Court in the next potential bellwether case involving two teenage girls who say addictive features like “Snapstreaks,” push notifications and view counts worsened their mental health.
In the complaint, an18-year-old from Mississippi who goes by “K.D.B.” claims her compulsive use of Snapchat and Instagram, which is owned by Meta, contributed to depression, anxiety, self-harm and suicidal thoughts.
“To this day, the addictive qualities of Defendants’ products and their harmful algorithms are not fully known or understood by minor users or their parents,” the plantiffs’ lawyers wrote in the complaint.
In a statement to ABC News, a Snap spokesperson said the allegations “misrepresent” the plantiffs’ experiences on the app.
“From the beginning, Snapchat was built differently from traditional social media: it opens to a camera, not a feed, not a ranking of what other people post or other social comparison metrics. We have built safeguards into the platform, introduced safety tools and educational resources, and we believe the evidence will support that we have put our community first, and that these allegations fundamentally misrepresent the plaintiffs’ experiences on Snapchat and how our platform was designed,” the Snap spokesperson said.
Meta has previously pushed back on allegations it does not protect young users on its platforms, pointing to features like Teen Accounts.
A Meta spokesperson responded to the latest lawsuit, telling ABC News: “We disagree with these allegations and will defend ourselves in court. A young person’s mental health is shaped by many factors, as the evidence in this trial will show. The plaintiff used TikTok far more than Instagram or Facebook, and her personal circumstances were a substantial factor in her struggles,” adding, “We’ve spent more than a decade building protections for teens, and our agreement with 52 bipartisan attorneys general goes even further with strict time limits, no access at night, and no notifications during school hours. We hope the rest of our industry joins us in setting this new standard.”
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Snap CEO Evan Spiegel and Instagram’s top executive Adam Mosseri are expected to testify in November.
A similar landmark trial in the same courtroom against Meta and YouTube in March saw a jury side with the plaintiff “K.G.M.” and award her $6 million in damages. The companies are appealing. Snap and TikTok settled before the trial.
Meta has faced a slew of high-stakes legal battles this year as states, school districts and individuals try to use the courts to force tech companies to pay penalties and make changes to their products.
In a historic settlement with 48 states in August, Meta agreed to pay up to $18 billion and make significant changes to its apps for young users including setting time limits, disabling some filters and hiding like counts. Meta did not admit wrongdoing.
The tech giant is calling for other companies including TikTok, YouTube and Snap to make similar changes to their apps in order to implement a “new industry standard” toward safety.
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