Meta and Google at fault in social media addiction case

In late March, a Los Angeles jury found Meta and Google at fault in a landmark case brought by a young woman who alleged that the companies’ platforms fueled a childhood addiction to social media, contributing to her depression and anxiety.

The jury awarded $6 million in damages, a decision that could set a precedent for hundreds of similar cases currently moving through U.S. courts.

Nasser Abujbarah, a Managing Attorney at Phillips Law Group, joined “Arizona Horizon” to discuss how this ruling is a turning point for social media accountability and how Arizona families could be impacted as similar lawsuits move forward.

“It’s a very big deal,” Abujbarah said, “…people are calling it the big tobacco moment for social media.”

Abujbarah explained that for the last two decades, social media companies have been able to hide behind Section 230. Section 230 is the Communications Decency Act, which protects content on social media platforms.

“However, for the last two decades plus, they have been creating algorithms,” Abujbarah discussed, “…they’ve been creating a platform that has addicted our children, and this lawsuit said…how do they know it has addicted our children?”

According to Abujbarah, the theory behind the case was that the platform itself was addictive and was intentionally designed this way.

“The day that the verdict came out, Meta’s stock price fell about five percent,” Abujbarah said, “…so it mattered, it meant something, and hopefully they take real steps to fix it.”

Abujbarah explained that Meta’s own documents claim that one out of eight children receives direct messages from child predators.

“Our judicial system is working,” Abujbarah discussed, “…and it takes guts, and it takes lawyers, and it takes this family of a young woman to step up and to fight this huge corporation. To stand up and say what you’re doing to our children is not okay…at the end of the day, we have to take action, and if the government’s not going to, lawyers, and families will.”