Days ahead of a scheduled trial, the social media company Snap has settled a lawsuit that accused its platform of causing social media addiction. The settlement was announced Tuesday in the California Superior Court in Los Angeles County. The terms were not disclosed.
The lawsuit against Snap was brought by a 19-year-old identified in court documents as K.G.M. It accused the social media app of designing algorithms and features that led to addiction and mental health issues. The lawsuit also names other platforms, including Meta, YouTube, and TikTok, but no settlement has been reached with those companies. Snap remains a defendant in other similar social media addiction cases.
According to documents from ongoing cases, Snap employees raised concerns about risks to teen mental health dating back at least nine years. The company has stated these examples were “cherry-picked” and taken out of context.
Plaintiffs in these cases are drawing parallels to lawsuits against Big Tobacco in the 1990s, alleging that social media platforms obscured information about potential harms from their users. They argue that features like infinite scroll, auto video play, and algorithmic recommendations have tricked users into continuous app use, leading to depression, eating disorders, and self-harm.
Snap CEO Evan Spiegel had been scheduled to testify in the trial, which would have marked the first time a social media company faced a jury in an addiction lawsuit. No platform has yet lost such a case at trial. The remaining case against Meta, TikTok, and YouTube is set to proceed with jury selection beginning next Monday, January 27. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is expected to take the witness stand.
If plaintiffs prevail, legal experts predict the cases could result in multibillion-dollar settlements and potentially force platforms to redesign their products. The companies have defended themselves in part by arguing that design choices like algorithmic recommendations and infinite scroll are similar to a newspaper deciding what stories to publish, and are protected speech under the First Amendment.
Snap did not immediately respond to a request for comment.