The trial against Meta and Google began on Monday in civil court in Los Angeles with the plaintiff's lawyer accusing them of "creating addiction in the brains of children" who use their platforms.
The mechanism observed on Instagram (Meta) and YouTube (Google) did not happen "by chance, but on purpose," Mark Lanier emphasized in his opening speech, "because addiction is profitable."
The outcome of the hearings could set a significant precedent for the civil liability of social media operators, which have so far been exempt. Dozens of cases are expected to follow this one in the coming months.
Among others, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg will be called to testify on February 18, and Instagram (a Meta subsidiary) head Adam Moseri will be called as early as Wednesday.
In the absence of TikTok and Snapchat, which preferred to settle for a confidential amount, only YouTube (a branch of Google) and Meta, the tech giant behind Instagram, are in the dock in this trial, which is expected to last more than a month, Hina reports.
The case of the California girl
Twelve jurors, confirmed Friday after more than seven days of meticulous selection, must decide on the lawsuit filed by 20-year-old California woman Kaylee GM
Her case was deemed representative enough to serve as a test case whose outcome will set the benchmark for hundreds of similar lawsuits consolidated in California.
This girl, a YouTube user since the age of six, and then the owner of an Instagram account since the age of eleven, before Snapchat and TikTok, which she started using two to three years later, claims that she developed a strong addiction to social media that dragged her into a spiral of depression, anxiety, and self-image disorders.
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