Los Angeles Trial Alleges Meta, YouTube 'Engineered' Addiction In Children

Mark Lanier opened Monday’s trial in Los Angeles County Superior Court by presenting internal Meta and Google documents, including emails calling Instagram "like" features "like a drug" and a Meta study called "Project Myst" surveying 1,000 teens, according to court filings and opening statements.

The case centers on a now-20-year-old identified as K.G.M., whose lawyers said she began using YouTube at age 6 and Instagram at age 9 and that the platforms’ design choices exacerbated depression and suicidal thoughts, court filings show.

Meta said it "strongly disagrees" with the allegations and is "confident the evidence will show our longstanding commitment to supporting young people," and José Castañeda, a Google spokesperson, said the allegations against YouTube are "simply not true," company statements show.

The bellwether case was selected from more than 2,400 personal injury filings and could shape roughly 1,500 similar state cases and more than 2,300 related federal cases, according to court documents and court filings.

Executives including Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Instagram head Adam Mosseri and YouTube CEO Neal Mohan are expected to testify during a trial scheduled to last six to eight weeks, and Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Carolyn B. Kuhl instructed jurors not to change their social media use, court orders show.