After a Los Angeles jury found that Instagram and YouTube were negligently designed in ways that harmed a young user, she was awarded a total of $6 million in damages. The ruling is being seen as one of the most important courtroom tests yet over whether social media companies can be held liable for addictive product design, and a tech law expert believes it could crack big tech's legal shield.
The case involved a young woman identified as KGM, who told jurors she began using YouTube at age 6 and Instagram at age 9, later developing compulsive use patterns and serious mental health struggles. The jury found Instagram and YouTube's parent companies, Meta and Google, respectively, liable, assigning 70% of the responsibility to Meta and 30% to Google.
