A California state judge on June 10 rejected motions from Meta Platforms and Alphabet’s Google seeking a new trial in what has become one of the most consequential tech liability cases in recent memory. The ruling keeps intact a $6 million jury verdict that found both companies negligent for designing platforms, specifically Instagram and YouTube, that fueled addiction in a child plaintiff identified as K.G.M.
The verdict, originally handed down on March 25, 2026, marked the first time a jury held social media companies financially responsible not for what users posted, but for how the platforms themselves were engineered.
What the jury found, and what the judge preserved
The original trial centered on K.G.M., also referred to as Kaley, who alleged that compulsive use of Instagram and YouTube beginning in childhood led to depression and anxiety. Her legal team argued that specific design features, things like infinite scrolling, autoplay, and push notifications, were deliberately built to maximize engagement at the expense of young users’ mental health.
The jury agreed. It apportioned 70% of the blame to Meta, ordering the company to pay $4.2 million. Google was tagged with the remaining 30%, or $1.8 million.
