Jury begins deliberations in landmark social media addiction trial
Mar 14th 2026
After a month of testimony, 12 jurors must decide whether Meta and YouTube were negligent in creating features that allegedly addicted a now 20 year old and worsened her mental health.
- Jurors will decide whether Meta and YouTube were negligent in designing features that encouraged excessive use, not whether specific posts caused harm.
- The plaintiff, identified in court papers as KGM or Kaley, says early social media use addicted her and worsened depression and suicidal thoughts.
- Meta and YouTube deny the platform design caused her problems and point to medical records and family issues to dispute causation, with YouTube also saying it is not a social media platform.
- TikTok and Snapchat settled before the trial, leaving Meta and YouTube as the only defendants facing the jury.
- This bellwether case could shape future litigation and potentially force changes to how platforms are designed if plaintiffs prevail.
- Plaintiff lawyers cited internal company documents they say acknowledge addictive features, while defense lawyers argued those documents and the evidence do not prove negligence.