TikTok settles ahead of teen social media addiction bellwether trial

LOS ANGELES (CN) — TikTok has agreed to settle its part of a bellwether trial in which the world’s social media giants are accused of fomenting a mental health crisis among youths in America.

The terms of the settlement were not made public. TikTok, whose app plays a continuous stream of short video clips, is the second defendant in the case to have settled, with Snap having done so last week. There are two remaining defendants: Google, which owns YouTube, and Meta, which owns both Facebook and Instagram.

Jury selection began Tuesday morning in the landmark trial, which is expected to last just under two months and feature in-person testimony by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. Jurors will decide whether the two tech firms were negligent in designing their apps and whether that negligence played a substantial role in causing anxiety, depression and body dysmorphia in a single person — a now-19-year-old unnamed woman, known only in the proceedings as K.G.M.

The outcome of the bellwether trial could help determine a global settlement, involving some or all of roughly 1,600 plaintiffs who say their children became addicted to social media.

“It is the first case where a jury will hear the evidence that the social media companies intentionally designed their platforms to addict children for the purpose of selling the children’s minutes to advertisers,” plaintiffs’ attorney Josh Autry told Courthouse News on Monday. “And the consequences of that — we now have a generation of children that have been struggling with this social media addiction.”

TikTok did not respond to an email requesting a comment on the settlement.

Up until recently, social media companies have been shielded from a wide range of litigation by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which protects online platforms from liability based on content generated by third parties. But LA Superior Court Judge Carolyn Kuhl found that Section 230 did not shield social media companies from liability about their design features — features like “infinite scroll” or “autoplay,” which plaintiffs say keep teenagers glued to apps for hours on end.

They also say the features in which posts are given “likes” cause teens to become addicted to the dopamine hits that those “likes” bring with them.

Jury selection is expected to last all week, with opening arguments tentatively scheduled for next week.

There is a similar case proceeding in federal court in Northern California, a multi-district litigation brought by 42 states as well as cities, school districts and individuals. That case is expected to hold its first bellwether trial later this year.

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