The first of more than 1,000 lawsuits against social media platforms in the US goes to trial this week, with tech giants’ internal communications likely to play a key role.
A 20-year-old woman is suing YouTube and Meta — TikTok and Snapchat settled with her out of court — alleging they designed their platforms to be addictive.
The case faces significant hurdles: The allegation that social media causes mental health issues, rather than simply correlating with them, is scientifically contentious; the existence of “social media addiction” as a meaningful concept is widely disputed; and courts are rarely a good place to settle scientific questions.
But recently unsealed documents apparently showing that tech giants targeted young users could be influential to the jury.
