Latest Developments in Social Media Addiction Litigation

Bookmark this page for the most up-to-date news on social media addiction litigation. As the legal landscape evolves, we’ll keep you informed about key developments, case filings, and legal strategies. Stay ahead of the curve and be prepared to represent your clients effectively in this emerging area of law.

There have been a number of developments in the ongoing litigation involving social media and claims that several popular platforms including Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and Snapchat are responsible for a rise in mental health problems among their young users. Plaintiffs attribute the issues to the companies knowingly designing features that lead to addiction, particularly among their adolescent audience. The mass tort lawsuits filed against social media companies  have been filed by hundreds of individuals, local governments, and school districts across the country in both federal and state courts.

Nearly 600 federal cases involving social media addiction were consolidated in October, 2022, into a multidistrict litigation (MDL) pending in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California; they are being managed by U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers.  

Another group of over 800 social media litigation cases have been consolidated as Judicial Council Coordination Proceedings (JCCP) in California’s Los Angeles Superior Court before Superior Court Judge Carolyn B. Kuhl.

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On the Federal court website created for MDL 3047, In re: Social Media Adolescent Addiction/Personal Injury Liability Litigation, the court describes the litigation:

• This is a Multi-District Litigation (MDL) involving various defendants such as Meta Platforms, Inc., Instagram LLC, Snap, Inc., TikTok, Inc., ByteDance, Inc., YouTube LLC, Google LLC, and Alphabet Inc.  Plaintiffs have alleged that the defendants’ social media platforms are defective because they are designed to maximize screen time, which can encourage addictive behavior in adolescents.  As alleged, this conduct results in various emotional and physical harms, including death.

In the Master Complaint filed in Los Angeles Superior Court in May, 2023, the social media addiction plaintiffs make similar allegations:

• In the past decade, Americans’ engagement with social media grew exponentially, nowhere more dramatically than among our country’s youth. That explosion in usage is no accident. It is the result of Defendants’ studied efforts to induce young people to compulsively use their products—Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Snapchat, and YouTube. Borrowing heavily from the behavioral and neurobiological techniques used by slot machines and exploited by the cigarette industry, Defendants deliberately embedded in their products an array of design features aimed at maximizing youth engagement to drive advertising revenue. Defendants know children are in a developmental stage that leaves them particularly vulnerable to the addictive effects of these features. Defendants target them anyway, in pursuit of additional profit.

Plaintiffs in both the federal and state cases have alleged that, as a result of them using the defendants’’ platforms, they suffer from a range of injuries including depression, eating disorders, addiction, insomnia, anxiety, and self-harm, including suicide. 

Defendants in  the social media addiction cases have presented a number of arguments, including the contention that under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, they are not responsible for the content posted on their platforms by their users. 

On October 13, 2023, Judge Kuhl ruled against the social media companies in the JCCP cases, finding that although the platforms are not products, the claims brought by the plaintiffs are not barred by either the First Amendment or Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996. In siding with the plaintiffs, Judge Kuhl determined that their claims that the use of social media by teenagers caused addiction and mental health problems could move forward. Plaintiffs are also alleging that the social media giants intentionally manipulate the ways in which users engage with the platforms and failed to warn users about the risks inherent in their use, exhibiting disregard for their health and safety.

Similarly, in November 2023, Judge Rogers ordered that Meta and the other defendant social media companies would have to face negligence claims brought by plaintiffs in the MDL, rejecting the companies’ argument that they were protected by Section 230 and the First Amendment. In April 2024, the defendant Meta filed another motion to dismiss claims being made by over 30 U.S. states based in part on Section 230. Last week, Judge Rogers denied the motion for the most part, but placed limits on the states’ claims acknowledging that Section 230 does offer some protection to the social media company. 

The first social media addiction bellwether case is anticipated in June, 2025.

Resources

1. https://www.reuters.com/legal/meta-must-face-us-state-lawsuits-over-teen-social-media-addiction-2024-10-15/
2. https://www.usnews.com/news/top-news/articles/2024-10-15/meta-must-face-us-state-lawsuits-over-teen-social-media-addiction
3. https://www.cand.uscourts.gov/in-re-social-media-adolescent-addiction-personal-injury-products-liability-litigation-mdl-no-3047/
4. https://www.cbsnews.com/philadelphia/news/meta-sued-apps-harming-young-people-mental-health/?gad_source=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIsdyApdeViQMVsE7_AR0g6jI1EAMYASAAEgIwHPD_BwE
5. https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/social-media-lawsuits-when-can-and-5275226/
6. https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/26/tech/supreme-court-social-media/index.html
7. https://www.scotusblog.com/2024/02/supreme-court-skeptical-of-texas-florida-regulation-of-social-media-moderation/
8. https://www.law.com/2023/10/23/social-media-lost-dismissal-of-addiction-claims-but-a-second-showdown-looms/