Meta faces jury alone as TikTok settles second youth addiction case

TikTok has reached a confidential settlement with a Florida teenager ahead of a scheduled July 27 trial in Los Angeles, removing itself from the proceedings just a week after YouTube settled with the same plaintiff. The agreement leaves Meta and Snap as the only defendants facing the jury in the second bellwether case concerning youth social media addiction.

The 15-year-old plaintiff, identified by his initials, alleges that Meta, YouTube, TikTok, and Snap designed their platforms to be addictive through features like infinite scroll and autoplay. Having used social media since he was eight, he was diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder and major depressive disorder in 2023, including suicidal ideation.

This trial follows a March verdict where a jury found Meta and Google liable and awarded six million dollars in damages. TikTok also settled that first bellwether case before it went to trial. The current litigation involves more than 10,000 individual cases and nearly 800 school-district claims, meaning early verdicts act as crucial reference points for valuing the entire pool.

For European investors and regulators, these US federal trials serve as a leading indicator of litigation risk for the continent's tech sector. While Europe is enforcing its own strict digital regulations, a second US jury finding Meta liable would significantly strengthen the hand of claimants globally and could embolden similar legal actions in European jurisdictions.

Meta now heads into its second consecutive trial as the only major platform consistently refusing to settle. Snap chief executive Evan Spiegel could testify, while Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg and Instagram head Adam Mosseri may return to the stand.

Plaintiff attorney Rahul Ravipudi noted that this case offers a distinct perspective, stating that “the impacts on a male and on somebody who’s a minor currently involve different circumstances and things for the jury to evaluate.” A second guilty verdict would substantially increase the financial pressure on Meta to change its approach to the thousands of pending claims.