Thousands of similar lawsuits are pending against the Google-owned platform.
Following a similar lawsuit earlier this year, Google has settled with a minor identified as “RKC” who claimed the social media platform harmed them. reuters Informed. Lawyers said yesterday that the terms of the settlement are confidential. The same plaintiffs also sued Meta, Snap and TikTok, with a hearing scheduled for next month. There are thousands of similar lawsuits pending against YouTube, so this second case represents a test for many.
A Google spokesperson explained, “Our focus remains on age-appropriate products and parental controls that deliver on that promise.” reuters A statement said the matter was resolved amicably.
The first lawsuit was brought by a 20-year-old woman known as “KGM”, who also claimed damages due to the addictive nature of social media. The man won his case and received $6 million in damages, of which $3 million came from Meta and another $3 million from YouTube. YouTube vowed to launch an appeal in that case, saying it had “responsibly built a streaming platform, not a social media site.”
There are more than 3,300 lawsuits related to social media addiction pending in California state courts, and another 2,600 lawsuits were brought by individuals, school districts, municipalities, and states in California federal court. This is just one situation (albeit the largest), but if each plaintiff gets a multi-million-dollar award, it’s easy to see the size of the problem for YouTube and other platforms. The social media platform has recently settled (or is facing) lawsuits in Kentucky, New York City, and several other US jurisdictions.
Meta and other platforms have refuted the idea that their platforms are addictive. However, a lawyer in the first case involving KGM said the companies’ own communications contradict those claims. Joseph VanZandt said in March, “This is the first time in history that a jury has heard testimony from executives and seen internal documents that we believe prove that these companies prioritized profits over children.”
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