A historic lawsuit accusing several prominent social media companies of intentionally designing their platforms to addict children is set to head to trial in Los Angeles on Tuesday.
It marks the first in a series of high-profile trials against Meta, TikTok and YouTube that are poised to proceed in the coming months.
Snap, the parent company of Snapchat, was also part of the case but has since reached a settlement.
Thousands of individuals, school districts and states have filed lawsuits against the social media giants that have since been consolidated into two massive cases — one in California state court and another in federal court.
The proceedings in Los Angeles Superior Court are the first to head to trial on one of several “bellwether” cases, which will serve as test trials for the broader litigation.
“The simple fact that a social media company is going to have to stand trial before a jury and account for its design decisions is unprecedented in American jurisprudence,” said Matthew Bergman, founding attorney of the Social Media Victims Law Center, which is representing numerous plaintiffs.
The cases mark a key test for social media companies, which have been shielded from many lawsuits by Section 230. The provision of the Communications Decency Act prevents online platforms from being held liable for user-generated content.
However, judges in both the federal and state cases have rejected efforts to dismiss the lawsuits over Section 230, finding the protections do not block challenges over the companies’ design choices.
“[The lawsuits are] trying to make the claim that this isn’t about the content that ultimately got delivered to the individuals or to the plaintiffs because that’s a fairly clear Section 230 question,” said Mary Anne Franks, a professor at George Washington University Law School.
“Their argument is, ‘No, the way that you have designed your tool, your product, is that you have accelerated or augmented the accessibility of those harmful things to children,’” she added.
