Jurors heard closing arguments in the social media addiction trial on Thursday. The plaintiff attorney Mark Leiner argued that major tech companies knowingly designed platforms that could harm vulnerable teens.
Jurors must now decide whether companies behind platforms like Instagram, YouTube, and Snapchat were negligent in the design of their products. Leiner argued the platforms contributed to serious harm suffered by his plaintiff, Kaley G.M., who is now 20 years old.
Her lawsuit claims the platforms were built to maximize addictiveness among children to drive profits and contributed to her body dysmorphia, depression, and suicidal thoughts. -- 📺 Watch NTD News 24/7 on cable, broadcast, and streaming: https://www.ntd.com/watch
Jurors are hearing closing arguments in the social media addiction trial in Los Angeles.
NTD's Cristina Corona has been following the case for the past five weeks
and reports on what attorneys told the jury today.
The jurors heard closing arguments in the social media addiction trial. The plaintiff's attorney
Mark Lanier argued that these big tech companies knowingly designed platforms that could harm
vulnerable teens. Jurors must now decide whether Instagram and YouTube are negligent in the design
of their products. Lanier argues the platforms contributed to serious harm suffered by his
plaintiff Kaylee GM who is now 20 years old. Jurors must now decide whether Instagram and
YouTube were negligent in the design of their products. Lanier argues the platforms contributed
to serious harm suffered by his plaintiff Kaylee GM who is now 20 years old. Her lawsuit claims
the platforms were built to maximize addictiveness among children to drive profits and contributed to
her body dysmorphia, depression and suicidal thoughts. Her legal team says features like
endless scrolling, notifications and beauty filters were intentionally engineered to keep
young users engaged. Lanier told jurors the platforms operate using what he described as
a slot machine logic encouraging users to repeatedly check their phones. He also pointed
to internal meta documents including emails from Mark Zuckerberg discussing plans to increase time
spent on the platform by 12 percent as part of the three-year effort to generate an additional
one billion dollars in revenue. He said YouTube had similar goals aiming for one billion hours of
watch time per day by end of 2016. Jurors were also reminded of earlier testimony from a child
psychiatrist who said teenagers developing brains and desire for social approval may make them more
vulnerable to addictive online behavior. The plaintiffs argue companies like Meta and YouTube
knew about those vulnerabilities and exploited them rather than protecting young users.
Meta and YouTube deny the allegations arguing other factors in Kaylee's life contributed to
her mental health struggles. Several survivor parents traveled to Los Angeles hoping to get
a seat inside the courtroom and witness the proceedings. Defense attorneys will begin their
closing arguments Thursday afternoon. The jury will begin their deliberations as soon as Friday.
Reporting from downtown Los Angeles, Christina Corona, NTD News.
