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Jury finds Meta, Google liable for $3M in social media addiction trial
A jury found Meta and Google liable for $3 million in damages in a trial over allegations their apps are designed to addict children.
Six hours. That’s the amount of time between when 17-year-old Jordan DeMay received a message from a flirty stranger on Instagram and when he took his own life.
He thought he was speaking with an attractive girl his age. When she suggested they trade sexually explicit photos, he quickly complied. The conversation immediately shifted. The “girl” was a group of Nigerian cybercriminals who proceeded to blackmail Jordan and threaten his family.
When he told them he was intent on killing himself, they replied: “Good. Do that fast, or I’ll make you do it. I swear to God.”
Now, a new landmark ruling may make a difference for kids like Jordan, forever altering the landscape of social media.
On March 25, a jury found Meta and Google liable for $6 million in damages in a landmark trial over allegations that their popular social media apps, including Instagram and YouTube, are designed to get children addicted.
“For the first time in history, a social media company has been held liable for harming a kid knowingly and maliciously,” says Matthew Bergman, the founding attorney of the Social Media Victims Law Center. He’s one of the lawyers for the plaintiff. “The fact that they found malice is cataclysmic.”
The Los Angeles case centers on a 20-year-old woman, identified as Kaley G.M., who said she became addicted to Google’s YouTube and Meta’s Instagram at a young age.
The jury found Google and Meta were negligent in the design of both apps and failed to warn of their dangers. The case at hand was about one woman’s social media addiction, but other parents − some of whom lost children after online interactions − celebrated the verdict. They’ve been long been advocating for changes to these platforms and hope this ruling is the first of many steps in that direction.
Meta was ordered to pay 70% of Kaley’s damages award, with Google responsible for the remaining 30%. TikTok and Snap, the other two companies originally filed against, settled before it went to court.
Representatives for Meta and Google told USA TODAY they disagree with the verdict and plan to appeal. “This case misunderstands YouTube, which is a responsibly built streaming platform, not a social media site,” says José Castañeda, a spokesperson for Google.
Meta spokesperson Stephanie Otway says teen mental health is “profoundly complex” and “cannot be linked to a single app.”
“We will continue to defend ourselves vigorously as every case is different, and we remain confident in our record of protecting teens online,” Otway says.
Parents, advocates react to verdict
Parents like Jordan’s father, John DeMay, slept outside the Los Angeles courthouse for days on end, arriving as early as 4 a.m. to get spots.
“I don’t get to go to his college and visit him. I don’t get to buy him groceries. I don’t get to hang out with him and have him over for Sunday dinner anymore,” says DeMay. “That was taken for me, so this is my time to be with him and to spread his message.”
Julianna Arnold, an advocate who lost her 17-year-old daughter, Coco, to fentanyl poisoning after a man on Instagram sold her laced pills, says the ruling is a “triumph” but “bittersweet.”
She described her daughter as an “adventurous and curious” young woman who “really cared about people and injustice.”
She spent what would’ve been Coco’s 21st birthday in the courtroom.
“We were all just thinking, wow, what if they could just still be here today?” Arnold says.
When the ruling came out, she was holding hands with Lori and Avery Schott, whose daughter Annalee died by suicide in 2020 at age 18 following a severe addiction to social media platforms that her parents say worsened her mental health.
Arnold described sitting on “pins and needles” waiting for the verdict.
“My daughter’s never coming back,” Arnold says. “We can make changes so it won’t happen to any other families.”
What comes next?
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified in court on Feb. 18, where he faced questions about Facebook and Instagram’s age restrictions and safety measures. He said the platforms don’t allow users under the age of 13 to sign up for accounts, despite lawyers for the plaintiff presenting evidence suggesting otherwise, Reuters reported.
Thousands of similar lawsuits have been brought against social media companies. But only a small number of the lawsuits, including Kaley G.M.’s, are going to trial this year as test cases, known as “bellwether” trials.
The LA verdict followed one a day earlier where a jury in New Mexico found Meta liable in a lawsuit that accused the company of misleading users about the safety of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp and of enabling child sexual exploitation on those platforms, and ordered the company to pay $375 million in civil penalties.
The result on March 25 may impact thousands of similar cases pending in U.S. courts. Bergman anticipates that more will follow.
“Families who have been afraid to take on big tech, because they saw them as invincible, will take heed from the jury’s verdict and think that it might be worthwhile for them to seek accountability.”
For parents like DeMay and Arnold, there’s more work to be done.
“Today is a new day,” DeMay says. “We pick our heads up, and we keep fighting, because it’s not over, it’s just, it’s just beginning.”
Rachel Hale’s role covering Youth Mental Health at USA TODAY is supported by a partnership with Pivotal and Journalism Funding Partners. Funders do not provide editorial input. Reach her at rhale@usatoday.com and @rachelleighhale on X.