Snap settles social media addiction lawsuit ahead of Los Angeles trial

Snap reached an agreement on Tuesday to settle a tech addiction lawsuit, announced in a hearing at the California Superior Court in Los Angeles County, a week before the start of the first trial. The case is the first of several lawsuits this year against Meta, Snap, TikTok and YouTube that claim the companies engineered products to hook a generation of young users.

Thousands of teenagers, school districts and state attorneys general have filed suits seeking monetary damages and changes to platform design, arguing that features such as infinite scroll, auto video play and algorithmic recommendations led to compulsive use and caused depression, eating disorders and self-harm.

The specific case brought by a teenager identified as K.G.M. alleged she became addicted to social media apps and suffered mental health problems. No financial or other details of the Snap settlement were announced. No settlement was reached in the same case with Meta, TikTok or YouTube, and Snap remains a defendant in other social media addiction cases.

Snap did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Plaintiffs say they will present thousands of pages of internal documents they contend show top executives, including Mark Zuckerberg and Evan Spiegel, acknowledging teen mental health challenges while doing little to prevent excessive use; Mr.

Key Topics

Tech, Snap, California Superior Court, Social Media, Meta, Tiktok