Meta settles bellwether suit over harms of social media to school districts

OAKLAND, Calif. (CN) — Facebook and Instagram parent Meta on Thursday became the final social media giant to settle a bellwether case brought by a Kentucky school district seeking to recoup the costs of handling the harms social media causes young people.

Breathitt County Board of Education settled with co-defendants, Snap, Inc., TikTok and YouTube ahead of its settlement with Meta. The settlement terms were not disclosed.

“Our focus remains on pursuing justice for the remaining 1,200 school districts who have filed cases,” after the Kentucky school district resolved its claims, the plaintiffs’ attorneys said in a statement.

Breathitt’s was the first case, selected as a bellwether, in the multidistrict litigation to test how the lawsuits might play out in court.

“We’ve resolved this case amicably and remain focused on our longstanding work to build protections like Teen Accounts that help teens stay safe online, while giving parents simple controls to support their families,” a Meta spokesperson said in an email to Courthouse News.

Breathitt sought over $60 million to combat the harms from what it said are the addictive features of social media apps, including infinite scroll and other algorithmic settings that are designed to keep students active on their phones. The district accused the social media companies of mental health harms and part of damages were to fund a 15-year mental health program.

The initial multidistrict litigation consolidated hundreds of personal injury lawsuits on behalf of children and adolescents by school districts, local governments and state attorneys general. These plaintiffs claim Meta, Alphabet, TikTok and Snap designed platforms to foster compulsive use by minors.

U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers is presiding over the sprawling litigation.

In a joint lawsuit filed in late 2023, 33 states claim Meta built a business model that maximizes young users’ time on its platforms and employs psychologically manipulative platform features. They accused the tech behemoth of publishing misleading reports on user harm and continuing to downplay the negative consequences of its products.

A trial on the states’ claims is set to begin Aug. 6.

Breathitt’s bellwether trial, previously scheduled for jury selection on June 12, will no longer take place. The next trial will be the Tucson Unified School District’s case, tentatively scheduled for January 2027.