A landmark case that was set to go ahead against Facebook parent Meta on Monday in California state court, over allegations that Meta’s Instagram was designed to be addictive to children, has been dropped.
Attorneys for the 15-year-old plaintiff, identified as RKC, said he had elected to drop the case after reaching settlements with the three other companies originally named in the lawsuit, YouTube parent Google, TikTok parent ByteDance, and Snapchat parent Snap.
“In light of the overall successful result of the litigation and his concerns about enduring a gruelling weeks-long trial, he has elected to withdraw his claims against Meta,” the attorneys stated.
Addictive design
Meta said in a statement that it had not paid RKC and that his claims were baseless.
