A court just ruled that tech addiction is real—and dangerous. It could be Meta and YouTube’s Big Tobacco moment

A Los Angeles jury has sided with a young woman known as Kaley or KGM in a landmark case, ruling that the “addictive design” of Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube helped fuel her serious mental health problems. The closely watched bellwether case against the platforms’ parents, Alphabet’s ‌Google and Meta, could set a precedent in thousands of similar lawsuits and force Silicon Valley to rethink the features that keep users endlessly scrolling.

After more than 40 hours of deliberation across nine days—including testimony from KGM as well as from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and other tech leaders—California jurors decided Meta and YouTube were negligent in the design or operation of their platforms, and awarded the plaintiff, a 20-year-old woman who says her social media addiction exacerbated her mental health struggles, $3 million in damages.

The multimillion-dollar verdict will grow, as the jury will decide whether the companies acted with malice or fraud. They will hear new evidence shortly and head back into the deliberation room to decide on punitive damages. Meta and Google-owned YouTube were the two remaining defendants in the case after TikTok and Snap each settled before the trial began.

“We respectfully disagree with the verdict and are evaluating our legal options,” a Meta spokesperson said when reached for comment Wednesday. 

A spokesperson for YouTube parent company Google said the company also disagrees with the verdict and plans to appeal. “This case misunderstands YouTube, which is a responsibly built streaming platform, not a social media site,” the spokesperson said.

The decision also puts legal weight behind a term Big Tech has spent years trying to dismiss: tech........

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