Meta and YouTube have been found negligent for deliberately designing addictive products that harmed a young user, in the first lawsuit of its kind to reach a jury verdict.
The case centred on a 20-year-old woman identified only as KGM, who testified that she became addicted to YouTube at age six and Instagram at nine. By ten, she said, she was depressed and engaging in self-harm. At 13, her therapist diagnosed her with body dysmorphic disorder and social phobia, conditions she attributes to her use of both platforms.
The jury awarded $3 million in compensatory damages. Punitive damages will be decided in the next phase of the trial.
What the plaintiffs argued
The legal strategy mirrored the tobacco playbook from the 1990s: that the companies knew their products were harmful, denied it publicly, and built features designed to maximise use regardless of the cost to users.
Infinitely scrollable feeds. Video autoplay. Recommendation algorithms tuned for engagement over wellbeing. These are not neutral design choices, the plaintiffs argued. They are the architecture of addiction.
"How do you make a child never put down the phone? That's called the engineering of addiction," KGM's lawyer Mark Lanier said during closing arguments, as reported by the Guardian. "These are Trojan horses: they look wonderful and great, but you invite them in and they take over."
The broader legal picture
This verdict does not stand alone. The day before, Meta was ordered to pay $375 million in civil penalties in a separate New Mexico lawsuit, where a jury found the company misled consumers about platform safety and enabled harm including child sexual exploitation. The back-to-back findings represent the first time Meta has been found liable or negligent for conduct on its platform.
Meta says it will appeal the New Mexico ruling and is evaluating its options in California. YouTube had not responded to requests for comment at the time of publication. Both companies have consistently denied wrongdoing.
Meta has previously argued that KGM's mental health difficulties stemmed from a difficult home life rather than social media use. "Her records show significant emotional and physical abuse, academic struggles and psychiatric conditions, separate from her social media usage," a spokesperson told the Guardian.
What comes next
This case is the first in a consolidated group of California lawsuits against Meta, TikTok, YouTube and Snap on behalf of more than 1,600 plaintiffs, including more than 350 families and 250 school districts. TikTok and Snap settled before trial. More than 20 bellwether cases are scheduled over the next two years, with the next set for July. A separate federal series involving hundreds of plaintiffs is due to begin in San Francisco in June.
The social media industry has fought for years to keep cases like this from reaching a jury. One just did. The verdict will shape how the next 20 are argued, and how seriously the companies consider settling before they get there.