Meta and YouTube were ordered to pay $6 million to a woman for psychological harm.

According to the lawsuit, companies knew they were harming users.

Social media companies use various psychological tricks to keep users engaged.

Meta and YouTube were just ordered to pay a woman a combined six million dollars for creating addictive products that harmed her psychologically. TikTok and Snapchat were also sued but settled out of court.

The 20-year-old woman joined YouTube at age 6 and Instagram at age 9. Over the course of her childhood and adolescence, she explained that her experience on these platforms gave her body dysmorphia and thoughts of suicide, and led her to self-harm.

The lawsuit accused Meta and YouTube of intentionally creating addictive platforms that enabled harm. Importantly, this circumvented Section 230, which protects social media companies from liability for content posted on their platforms. This strategy accused the platforms themselves of being harmful, not just what users uploaded or posted.

Competing for Our Attention

Meta and companies like it are engaged in what one design ethicist calls a “race to the bottom of the brainstem.” That is, each social media company has to compete for our attention. When one company designs a feature like infinite scrolling, all similar companies must either add it too or lose market share. That’s why when TikTok became an overnight success, Instagram and Facebook added Reels, and YouTube added YouTube Shorts. Short-form videos are powerful ways to keep our attention. If........

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