The algorithms that keep us mindlessly scrolling for hours could soon be in legal peril.
Driving the news: Snap has settled a social media addiction lawsuit just a week before it was set to face a landmark trial alongside Meta, TikTok and YouTube. Those three tech giants will still head to court on January 27, pending any other settlements, to face allegations that their products are directly responsible for youth mental health issues.
Despite its one-off settlement, Snap and the rest of the social media giants are still facing two other bellwether cases that combine thousands of lawsuits filed by teenagers, school districts and U.S. states.
Catch-up: The structure and legal arguments of the three lawsuits follow a near-identical playbook as litigation against Big Tobacco back in the ‘90s. They allege that, just like the tobacco companies, social media giants intentionally hid information about their products’ harms from the public, leading to the personal injury of millions.
The cases are the first to argue the legal theory that these social media platforms’ designs are inherently defective and are therefore subject to personal injury liability.
The tech giants have previously held that the First Amendment protects their right to design their algorithms and other features as they see fit, in the same way a newspaper can decide what stories to publish.
Why it matters: If the plaintiffs in one of these three cases are successful, legal experts say the social media companies will not only have to write a big cheque, but they could be forced to fundamentally redesign their platforms to be less addictive.—LA