The Los Angeles bellwether trial testing social media liability for addictive design features began jury selection January 27 and opened February 9. It's the first time major tech companies face a jury over claims their products harm children's mental health.
Mark Zuckerberg testified for nearly eight hours on February 18. He defended Instagram against claims the company deliberately designed features to addict children while knowing the harms. Internal documents showed Instagram aimed to increase daily user time to 46 minutes by 2026.
Those same documents showed roughly 4 million users were under 13 — about 30% of all 10- to 12-year-olds in the U.S. at the time. Instagram's own policy prohibited users under 13. A verdict could expose the platforms to billions in damages across over 1,000 pending lawsuits and force changes to features like infinite scroll, autoplay, and algorithmic recommendations.
Snap and TikTok settled before trial for undisclosed terms; Meta and YouTube are the remaining defendants. The trial is expected to conclude in coming weeks. The outcome will be a bellwether for thousands of similar cases and may determine how courts balance Section 230 protections against product liability claims based on design features rather than user-generated content.
