Meta Settles a School District’s Social Media Addiction Lawsuit
Snap, TikTok and YouTube had already settled with the Kentucky district, allowing the companies to avert the first in a series of federal trials.
Snap, TikTok and YouTube had already settled with the Kentucky district, allowing the companies to avert the first in a series of federal trials.
Meta agreed on Thursday to settle a social media addiction lawsuit brought by a Kentucky school district, precluding a bellwether trial accusing tech giants of causing harm to young users and, by extension, their schools.
The case, which was scheduled to go to trial in mid-June in U.S. District Court in Oakland, Calif., was among 1,200 lawsuits brought by school districts accusing Meta, TikTok, Snapchat and YouTube of negligence and public nuisance.
The lawsuits claim the companies created addictive technologies that resulted in significant costs for mental health counseling, tech programs and other services paid for by schools.
YouTube, Snap and TikTok previously settled with the Kentucky district, Breathitt County Schools. While the terms were not disclosed, Breathitt’s lawsuit had asked for more than $60 million to finance mental health programs.
The settlements followed two major losses in social media addiction cases in March, when juries in Los Angeles and New Mexico found Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, liable for causing harm to young users.
The companies have now paid to avert one in a flood of similar lawsuits expected to go to trial over the next two years, after thousands of individuals, states and schools sued over allegations that the companies created their products to be as addictive as cigarettes or casinos.
