by Mavia
A landmark trial against social media giants Meta and Google’s YouTube began in January 2026 in Los Angeles Superior Court, marking the first of several high-profile cases that have drawn comparisons to lawsuits against Big Tobacco in the 1990s. The case centers on a 20-year-old identified as KGM, whose lawsuit claims that Meta’s Instagram and Google’s YouTube deliberately designed features to addict children, causing severe mental health harms.
Key Takeaway:
Lawyers for the plaintiffs argued that Meta and Google “engineered addiction” in children’s brains, borrowing strategies from slot machines and the cigarette industry by deliberately embedding design features aimed at maximizing youth engagement to drive advertising revenue. Meta warned that if found liable, monetary damages could reach the high tens of billions of dollars, while more than 40 state attorneys general have filed similar lawsuits claiming these platforms harm young people and contribute to the youth mental health crisis. TikTok and Snap, originally named in the lawsuit, settled for undisclosed sums before trial.
Mavia’s Takeaway:
These Mega Media companies have learnt that, protracted and shrewd contract edits will exonerate them from gross liabilities. The dopamine effect derived from the infinite scroll powered by algorithms is the perfect business model. Everyone is an addict. Safe guards and court pleas look like a way to delay the consequence of humanities addiction to modern tech. What is your take or is it tech?