Court rejects Meta's bid to dismiss case; TikTok, YouTube settle separately

Meta. [Reuters]
Meta. [Reuters]

Meta, which has suffered a string of losses in lawsuits over social media harms, now faces trial in a separate addiction case brought jointly by 29 US states.

Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers of the US District Court for the Northern District of California in Oakland on Tuesday declined to dismiss a lawsuit filed by the attorneys general of California, Colorado and 27 other states, Reuters reported.

Meta had argued the case should be thrown out on the grounds that "social media addiction" is not a recognized psychiatric condition, and therefore its statements that its platforms are not addictive could not be considered false.

Gonzalez Rogers rejected that reasoning. In her ruling, she said the state attorneys general had offered a reasonable interpretation of Meta's statements — that Facebook and Instagram were not designed to cause compulsive use harmful to teenagers — and that this was a factual dispute subject to litigation.

She sided with the plaintiffs, who argued the word "addiction" should be read in its ordinary, everyday sense rather than as a clinical psychiatric term.

The judge said factual questions based on that interpretation were ones a jury could decide based on the evidence.

Gonzalez Rogers also issued a partial summary judgment in favor of the states, finding that Meta had failed to comply with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, known as COPPA, including requirements to provide proper notice and obtain parental consent.

The states filed the lawsuit in 2023, alleging that Facebook and Instagram were designed in ways that cause depression, anxiety, insomnia, disruptions to schoolwork and daily life, and self-harm among children and teenagers.

Meta said it "strongly disagrees with these claims and will be able to show through the evidence that we have long supported young people."

A hearing in the case is scheduled to begin Aug. 18.

Gonzalez Rogers is also presiding over related lawsuits filed by more than 2,600 individuals, school districts and local governments over alleged addiction to social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat and TikTok.

Meta has been losing a series of lawsuits over social media harms.

In a bellwether trial held in March at a Los Angeles court, with a plaintiff known as "Kaely G.M.," Meta and Google were ordered to pay a combined $6 million in damages. Meta was also fined $375 million in a separate lawsuit brought by the state of New Mexico.

A lawsuit filed by a school district in eastern Kentucky was resolved through a settlement.

Meta also faces a second bellwether trial next month involving a 15-year-old Florida boy identified by the initials "R.K.C."

TikTok reached a last-minute settlement with the plaintiffs ahead of that trial, NBC News reported, citing attorneys for the plaintiffs. Google's video platform YouTube had previously settled with the same plaintiffs.

As a result, only Meta and Snap will remain as defendants when the trial opens at a Los Angeles court on July 27.


yckim6452@heraldcorp.com