Snap reached an agreement on Tuesday to settle a tech addiction lawsuit, ahead of a landmark trial in a case that claims the social media giants engineered products to hook an entire generation of young users.
The case is the first of several social media addiction lawsuits that are set to go to trial this year against Meta, Snap, TikTok and YouTube. Following a legal playbook used against Big Tobacco decades ago, thousands of teenagers, school districts and state attorneys general have filed lawsuits accusing the companies of personal injury and other harms. They argue that features like infinite scroll, auto video play, and algorithmic recommendations have led to compulsive social media use and caused depression, eating disorders and self-harm.
The plaintiffs are seeking monetary damages and changes to the design of social media platforms to curb excessive use. If they succeed in arguing that the tech titans created defective products that injured millions of young American users, the cases — which are regarded as bellwethers — could open new lanes of liability against the tech titans.
Snap’s settlement was announced in a hearing in California Superior Court in Los Angeles County, a week before the start of a trial in the first of these cases. That case was brought by a teenager identified as K.G.M. who argued she became addicted to social media apps, leading to mental health problems. No financial or other details were announced about the settlement.
No settlement was reached in the same case with Meta, TikTok or YouTube. Snap, which is smaller than those three companies, remains a defendant in the other social media addiction cases.
Snap did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The cases are being closely watched because they are the first to argue a novel legal theory that the social media platforms are inherently defective and subject to personal injury liability. States and school districts also plan to argue that they have had to incur the costs of helping young users with mental health counseling and other services because of social media addiction.
Plaintiffs in the cases have compared the social media giants to Big Tobacco companies that knowingly hid information about their products’ harms from the public. They are expected to present thousands of pages of internal documents that show top executives, including Mark Zuckerberg of Meta and Evan Spiegel of Snap, acknowledging teen mental health challenges with their products but doing little to prevent excessive use. Mr. Spiegel was expected to testify in the first trial, along with Mr. Zuckerberg and other top executives.
The companies have argued that there is no scientific link between social media use and addiction. They also plan to argue that the lawsuits violate speech protections for their platforms.
Cecilia Kang reports on technology and regulatory policy for The Times from Washington. She has written about technology for over two decades.
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