Jurors were scheduled to deliberate for a ninth day Wednesday in the trial of a potentially landmark lawsuit accusing social media companies of using addictive practices that allegedly contributed to mental health and other harms.
The jury sent a note to the judge on Monday saying it was having difficulty reaching a verdict against one of the defendants. The jury on Friday sent a note indicating it had moved beyond the liability phase of its deliberations, and was in the process of considering financial damages.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Carolyn B. Kuhl told the panel Monday to keep deliberating, saying the case might have to be at least partially retried if the panel deadlocks regarding the unnamed defendant. The jury began deliberating the morning of March 13.
The panel is set to resume deliberating Wednesday.
After a weeks-long trial, attorneys for a plaintiff known only as K.G.M. and defendants YouTube and Meta — parent company of Facebook and Instagram — delivered closing arguments on March 12.
Plaintiff’s attorney Mark Lanier argued that his young client, who had uploaded hundreds of videos before she was even a teenager, became vulnerable to the Meta and YouTube platforms. He referred to the social media companies as “behemoths,” and compared them to a lion stalking a pack of vulnerable gazelles. The advantages of the lion, Lanier told the Los Angeles Superior Court jury, is a legitimate comparison to what Meta and YouTube did to K.G.M., a Chico resident who is now 20 years old.
Referring to what he called “engineered addiction,” Lanier also equated the content of the platforms to a Trojan horse, saying users are drawn in by the content’s “wonderful and great” appearance, but find themselves taken over by the reels on their devices.
TikTok and Snap were originally defendants in the lawsuit, but both reached settlements before the trial began in the courtroom of Judge Carolyn Barbara Kuhl. Hundreds of similar lawsuits are still pending, with this initial trial being closely watched by industry experts.
The social media companies are strongly contesting all allegations in K.G.M.’s lawsuit and maintain they are committed to the well-being of their young users. Attorneys have questioned the concept of social media being an addiction, and suggested that other factors in K.G.M’s life — including alleged verbal and physical abuse by her parents — led to her mental health struggles.
On Tuesday, a jury in New Mexico found that Meta’s social media platforms were harmful to children, in violation of state statutes, and ordered the company to pay $375 million. Meta officials quickly said they plan to appeal.