Crime & Justice
Lawyer Mark Lanier Wins Landmark Case Against Meta and Google Over Addictive Social Media Design
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Lawyer Mark Lanier Wins Landmark Case Against Meta and Google Over Addictive Social Media Design
A jury found Meta and Google liable for designing platforms addictive by design, awarding $6m to a young plaintiff in a case that could open the door to thousands of similar lawsuits.
- On 25 March, a Los Angeles jury found Meta and Google liable on all counts in the case of KGM v Meta et al, awarding the plaintiff $6m in compensatory and punitive damages, with Meta paying 70%.
- The jury determined that Meta and Google “acted with malice, oppression or fraud” in designing platforms that kept children hooked, with Meta’s own documents referring to YouTube’s “goal is not viewership; it’s viewer addiction.”
- Mark Zuckerberg testified for the first time in front of a jury, where Lanier presented an internal document showing that in 2015, a third of all 10- to 12-year-olds in the US used Instagram despite age restrictions.
- More than 2,000 similar lawsuits against social media companies are now being brought using the legal precedent Lanier established in Kaley’s case.
TopicsChildren SafetyMark Zuckerberg TestimonyGoogleSocial Media AddictionLegal PrecedentLawsuitMeta
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