Meta seeks to overturn landmark social media addiction verdict

Meta has asked a California judge to overturn a landmark jury verdict that found the company liable for contributing to a young woman’s depression through the allegedly addictive design of its social media platforms.

In a court filing submitted Monday and made public Wednesday, Meta requested that the Los Angeles judge either rule in its favour or order a new trial. 

The request follows a March jury verdict that found Meta and Google negligent in the design of their platforms and in failing to adequately warn users about potential mental health risks.

The jury awarded $4.2 million in damages against Meta and $1.8 million against Google. 

The lawsuit was brought by a woman identified in court documents as Kaley G.M., who argued that the companies’ platform features contributed to her depression.

Meta argued in its filing that the claims should be barred under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, a federal law that broadly shields online platforms from liability related to user-generated content. 

According to the company, evidence presented during the trial linked the plaintiff’s mental health struggles to the content she viewed online rather than platform design features such as autoplay and infinite scrolling.

Google has also asked the court to set aside the verdict or grant a new trial. Meanwhile, Snap Inc. and TikTok, which were initially named as defendants, settled with the plaintiff before the trial began.

The case is considered a major test for thousands of similar lawsuits accusing social media companies of designing addictive platforms that contribute to a broader youth mental health crisis.