Written by Diana Novak Jones
Mar. 25— — Recent jury rulings in California and New Mexico, involving Meta Platforms and Alphabet’s Google, have increased scrutiny of social media companies as plaintiffs advance legal theories aimed at holding platforms liable for harm to children. Here’s a look at how these cases could be an early test for how courts will handle similar claims in the future.
What did the Los Angeles jury find?
The jury ordered Meta and Google on Wednesday to pay a total of $6 million in compensation to plaintiff Callie GM, 20, who said she suffered from depression and suicidal thoughts after becoming addicted to the two companies’ platforms at an early age due to their attention-grabbing design. The jury found that both Meta and Google were negligent in the design of their platforms and failed to warn consumers of their risks.
What happened in New Mexico?
Separately, a New Mexico jury on Tuesday ordered Meta to pay $375 million after finding that the company misled users about the safety of Facebook and Instagram while enabling child sexual exploitation on those platforms in a lawsuit filed by the state attorney general.
Why are these experiences important?
The experiments were the first to test whether big tech companies could be held liable for designing apps blamed for harming young people’s well-being. Meta, Snapchat and Snap Inc. are facing off. Google’s YouTube, TikTok and parent ByteDance have filed thousands of lawsuits in federal and state courts over allegations they intentionally designed their platforms with addictive features for children and teens, fueling a mental health crisis.
What does the ruling mean for other lawsuits?
The Los Angeles trial is intended to serve as a pilot case, or test case, for thousands of similar lawsuits amassed in California state courts. Judges and attorneys often use lead judgments to evaluate the potential value of remaining claims and guide settlement negotiations. Typically, several entrepreneurs will go to trial before a settlement or broader solution is reached.
What other types of lawsuits are pending?
Beyond the California state court cases, more than 2,400 lawsuits against Meta and other social media companies making similar claims have been centralized in federal court in California. The federal lawsuit also includes lawsuits filed by state attorneys general alleging harm to their states, as well as cases brought by school districts that say social media addiction has caused disruption and costly problems.
While there can be some coordination between state courts and federal courts overseeing similar lawsuits, rulings by state courts typically do not have a direct impact on federal lawsuits.
What legal questions remain?
The New Mexico and California cases highlighted a central legal dispute that will likely shape future cases: the extent to which federal law protects social media companies from liability.
Meta, Google and other social media companies said such lawsuits are prohibited under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which generally shields platforms from liability for user-generated content. The plaintiffs counter that their claims target the design features of the sites that cause the harm, not the content itself.
Judges in Los Angeles and Santa Fe rejected that argument when they allowed the cases to go to trial. The rulings could form the basis of appeals that would give higher courts an opportunity to comment on the key question of whether Section 230 applies to claims that focus on platform design rather than content.
What comes after the rulings?
In May, a judge in New Mexico will oversee the second phase of that trial in which the state attorney general will seek a court order directing Meta to make changes to its platforms and seek additional financial damages.
Meta said she would appeal both rulings. Google said it would appeal the Los Angeles case.
In addition to the Section 230 question, companies can also base appeals on events surrounding the trial, including the judge’s decision-making based on the evidence, or the conduct of the jury or attorney.
Will there be more trials?
Yes, in both state and federal courts. A trial is scheduled for June in federal court in a lawsuit filed by a school district in Breathitt County, Kentucky, against Meta, ByteDance, Snap and Google, according to court records.
In California state court, another trial is scheduled to begin in July related to claims against Instagram, YouTube, TikTok and Snapchat.
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