By Diana Novak Jones
July 22 (Reuters) – A Florida teen dropped his lawsuit on Wednesday against Meta Platforms, canceling a Los Angeles trial over claims the social media company’s apps caused his depression and anxiety.
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The trial, which had been slated to begin on Monday, was expected to be the second trial in thousands of lawsuits that have been consolidated in California state court over claims social media companies designed their platforms to be addictive to children, spurring a youth mental health crisis.
The lawsuit, brought by a 15-year-old boy known as R.K.C. who started using social media when he was 8, originally named four defendants: Google’s YouTube, Meta’s Instagram, Snap Inc’s Snapchat and ByteDance’s TikTok, but YouTube and TikTok settled in June. The terms of those settlements were confidential.
A source close to the case confirmed on Wednesday that Snap had also settled with R.K.C.
“In light of the overall successful result of the litigation and his concerns about enduring a grueling weeks-long trial, he has elected to withdraw his claims against Meta,” attorneys for R.K.C. said in a statement. “He’s ready to close this chapter and focus on his recovery and engage in therapy as he aspires to have a normal life.”
A spokesperson for Meta said in a statement R.K.C. had dropped the claims against the company without receiving any payment.
“The claims never held up, and this outcome makes clear that we will not back away from defending ourselves against baseless lawsuits,” the company said.
THOUSANDS OF CASES
More than 3,300 lawsuits alleging social media platforms are addictive and harmful to young users are pending in California state court. R.K.C.’s case is among a small group selected as bellwethers. Attorneys often use bellwether verdicts to gauge how juries may view similar claims, helping them assess the potential value of remaining cases and guide settlement negotiations.
Another 2,600 cases making similar claims, brought by individuals, school districts, municipalities and states, are pending in California federal court. In addition, nearly every state attorney general has sued social media companies in their own state courts. The lawsuits accuse the companies of misrepresenting the safety of their platforms for young users and of designing them to addict children.
The companies have denied the allegations and say they take extensive steps to keep teens and young users safe on their platforms.
The first trial in California state court, which ended in March, was in the case of a woman who said she became addicted to social media platforms at a young age because of their attention-grabbing design. TikTok and Snap settled that case before trial.
Meta and Google went to trial, and a jury ultimately found the companies negligent, ordering Meta to pay $4.2 million in damages and Google to pay $1.8 million. In June, the judge rejected the companies’ bid to set aside that verdict.
The first trial in federal court had been set to begin in June in a lawsuit brought by a Kentucky school district against Meta, Snap, TikTok and YouTube. All of the companies settled before trial, paying the district a combined $27 million.
(Reporting by Diana Novak Jones; Editing by Chris Reese, Alexia Garamfalvi, Rod Nickel and Chizu Nomiyama)
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