Social Media Addiction Trial: Closing Arguments Made, Jury Deliberates Friday

Social media addiction trial closing arguments in Los Angeles court

After a month of testimony from addiction experts, platform engineers, executives, and Mark Zuckerberg himself, closing arguments have wrapped in the landmark social media addiction trial in Los Angeles. Jurors will begin deliberating Friday on whether Meta and YouTube should be liable for harms caused to children using their platforms. TikTok and Snap settled before the trial began.

The Case

The plaintiff, identified as Kaley, is a 20-year-old woman who says her early use of social media addicted her to the technology and worsened her depression and suicidal thoughts. Her attorney, Mark Lanier, compared social media companies to lions hunting the weakest gazelles in a herd: "I think that is what we got in this case."

Lanier pointed to internal documents from Meta and YouTube that he said showed a clear internal understanding that their platforms could be addictive. "I don't naysay the opportunity to make money, but when you are making money off of kids, you have to do it responsibly," he said.

Meta and YouTube Push Back

Meta argued that Kaley faced significant mental health challenges before she ever used social media. "The jury's only task is to decide if those struggles would have existed without Instagram," a Meta spokesperson said. "Not one of her therapists identified social media as the cause."

YouTube's attorneys argued their platform is not social media at all, comparing it to television and emphasizing it lacks the social validation features of Instagram. They noted that Kaley originally did not bring any claims against YouTube when filing her lawsuit.

The Bellwether Effect

This case is one of three bellwether trials, meaning its outcome could shape how thousands of similar lawsuits against social media companies play out. Only nine of 12 jurors need to agree on each count, and they will decide the case against Meta and YouTube independently.

The Bottom Line

This trial is the first real legal test of whether social media companies can be held financially liable for addicting children to their platforms. The cupcake metaphor Lanier used in his closing sums it up: social media does not have to be the only cause of harm, just a "substantial factor." If the jury agrees, it could open the floodgates for thousands of similar cases and potentially force fundamental changes to how these platforms are designed.