A 15-year-old girl in the US has dropped her lawsuit against Meta, Google and Snap just weeks before the case was expected to go to trial. The teenager had accused the companies of making their social media platforms addictive and contributing to her depression and self-harm.
According to Reuters, the girl filed the case against the owners of Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and Snapchat. She alleged that the platforms contributed to her social media addiction and affected her mental health.
The social media platforms said the teenager dropped her claims without receiving any payment. TikTok, which was also named in the lawsuit, had already settled the claims.
Her lawyer Emily Jeffcott said the teenager decided to end the case because she wanted to resume her life. However, she said her client had originally started the case to push social media companies to make changes.
“She initiated this process with the goal of holding social media companies accountable and to push for changes to protect young people like herself,” Jeffcott was quoted as saying.
“The case was important because it was one of three ‘bellwether’ cases chosen from more than 3,300 similar lawsuits in California. These cases are watched closely because their results could give an idea of how other similar cases may go,” said Reuters.
Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta is currently facing a separate major trial brought by 29 US states. The states accuse the social media giant of designing Instagram and Facebook to keep children hooked and misleading the public about the safety of its platforms.
Meta has denied the allegations.
According to Reuters, two other cases involving teenagers and similar allegations are scheduled to go to trial in October.
The legal pressure on Meta and Google is also growing. In March, another individual trial ended with a jury awarding $4.2 million against Meta and $1.8 million against Google after a woman claimed she became addicted to social media at a young age.
(With inputs from Reuters)
