Days before a scheduled trial, social media company Snap has settled a lawsuit accusing the platform of causing social media addiction, according to reports from multiple shops.
According to the New York Timesthe settlement was announced Tuesday in California Superior Court in Los Angeles County. The lawsuit against Snap was brought by a 19-year-old known in court documents as KGM, accusing the social networking app of designing algorithms and features that caused addiction and mental health problems.
Terms of the settlement were not disclosed.
The lawsuit also names other platforms, including Meta, YouTube and TikTok. No agreement has been reached with these platforms. Notably, Snap is still a defendant in other similar social media addiction cases filed against it.
According to documents disclosed in the ongoing casesSnap employees have raised concerns about mental health risks to teens dating back at least nine years. The company said these examples were “selected” and taken out of context.
Plaintiffs in those cases draw parallels with Big Tobacco — citing lawsuits in the 1990s against cigarette companies that concealed health risks — alleging that the platforms withheld information about potential harm from their users. They argue that features such as infinite scrolling, auto-play videos and algorithmic suggestions have tricked users into constantly using apps, leading to depression, eating disorders and self-harm, according to the NYT.
Snap CEO Evan Spiegel was scheduled to testify in the trial, which would mark the first time a social media company has faced a jury in a drug addiction lawsuit — no platform has yet lost such a case at trial. The rest of the case against Meta, TikTok and YouTube is set to proceed with jury selection starting next Monday, January 27, with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg expected to take the witness stand.
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If the plaintiffs prevail, legal experts predict the cases could lead to multibillion-dollar settlements and potentially force platforms to redesign their products. But companies have so far they defended themselves in part by arguing that these same design choices—such as algorithmic recommendations, push notifications, and infinite scrolling—are akin to a newspaper deciding which stories to publish and protected speech under the First Amendment.
Snap did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
