Jury finds Meta and YouTube built ‘addiction machines’ that harmed a child, awards $3 million in landmark trial

A Los Angeles jury has found Meta and Google liable for intentionally building addictive social media platforms that harmed a young woman’s mental health, awarding her $3 million in compensatory damages in what is the first trial verdict of its kind in the United States. The decision, delivered on Wednesday after a five-week trial, found Meta responsible for 70 per cent of the plaintiff’s harm and YouTube for the remaining 30 per cent. Punitive damages, which could reach $30 million under California law, are still to be determined.

The plaintiff, identified as Kaley, is now 20 years old. She testified that she began using YouTube at age six and Instagram at age nine, encountering no age verification barriers on either platform. She described spending entire days on social media as a child, withdrawing from her family, and developing anxiety, depression, and body dysmorphia, a condition in which a ...