Google decided to settle a social media lawsuit A 15-year-old from Florida referred to by his initials R.K.C. filed a lawsuit against four major social media platform operators, Google’s YouTube, Meta’s Instagram, Snap’s Snapchat, and ByteDance’s TikTok, claiming that the platforms damaged his mental health. The teenager claims that ever since he started using social media at eight-years-old, deliberate design features like Instagram’s infinite scroll and YouTube’s autoplay feature got him addicted, leading to worsened mental health outcomes that included suicidal thoughts. The rest of the defendants have not yet settled, meaning that they can still face trial when it begins at the end of next month. The terms of Google’s settlement are confidential, per Reuters. “For more than a decade, we’ve built YouTube responsibly — working with families to give young people safer, more helpful experiences online,” Google spokesperson José Castañeda told Gizmodo in a statement. “This matter has been amicably resolved and our focus remains on building age-appropriate products and parental controls that deliver on that promise.”
R.K.C.’s case closely mirrors another bellwether case that went to trial in California earlier this year. In that case, now 20-year-old K.G.M. sued Google, ByteDance, Snap and Meta for deliberate addictive design choices that worsened mental health problems like depression, anxiety, body dysmorphia, and thoughts of self-harm.
