WHY IT MATTERS: It seems that the two things taking up most of Meta's time these days are AI and lawsuits. In the case of the latter, the social media giant has just settled a major suit with a Kentucky school district over claims that it designs its products to be addictive, thereby directly harming children's mental health.
The lawsuit was brought by Breathitt County School District, a rural district in eastern Kentucky that serves about 1,600 students across six schools. It had been scheduled to go to trial on June 15 in federal court in Oakland, California, making it the first school district case of its kind set to reach a jury.
Breathitt accused Meta, YouTube, Snap, and TikTok of building platforms that keep young users hooked through features such as algorithmic recommendations, infinite scroll, and autoplay.
The district claimed the resulting anxiety, depression, self-harm, and classroom disruption forced schools to divert resources away from education and toward counseling, behavioral interventions, and crisis management.
The district had been seeking more than $60 million to fund a 15-year program designed to counteract the alleged damage caused by social media. It also wanted the court to force changes to reduce what it called addictive features on the companies' platforms.
