Court rules that Meta and YouTube encouraged social media addiction. Defeat for tech bros, victory for everyone else.

There was a verdict in a landmark trial in California regarding social media addiction. The losers? Meta and Google.

An anonymous plaintiff–we only know her as “Kaley”–alleged that Instagram and YouTube were deliberately engineered to be addictive, something that led to anxiety, depression, and body image issues when she was younger.

After much deliberation, the jury agreed, ruling that Instagram (owned by Meta) and YouTube (owned by Google) ran a product that was harmful to kids and teens. What’s more, both companies failed to warn anyone about the dangers.

Kaley has been awarded US$3 million. The jury also ruled that both companies acted with malice. That means there will be separate punitive damage penalties. We’ll find out more about that later.

It gets worse for Meta and Google. First, Meta lost another case this week in which it must pay US$375 million for violating a law in New Mexico about a child exploitation case.

But here’s the big one: More than 2,000 similar cases are pending, all of which were awaiting the result of the California case. Precedent has been set. By the way, allegations against TikTok and Snap were also made, but those companies settled with Kaley out of court.

Want an analogy? The tobacco trials of the 1990s. Tobacco companies were liable for billions in damages to personal health for hiding the truth about the health effects of smoking. This is no different.

Tech bros be worryin’.