{"id":113916,"date":"2026-03-07T02:46:38","date_gmt":"2026-03-07T05:46:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tech.einnews.com\/article\/897757608"},"modified":"2026-03-07T02:46:38","modified_gmt":"2026-03-07T05:46:38","slug":"how-consequential-can-the-instagram-addictiveness-lawsuit-actually-be-for-big-tech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/2026\/03\/07\/how-consequential-can-the-instagram-addictiveness-lawsuit-actually-be-for-big-tech\/","title":{"rendered":"How consequential can the Instagram addictiveness lawsuit actually be for big tech?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div class=\"hydrate-root sc-10wlkbs-0\" data-component=\"SupportNSCNative\" data-loading=\"lazy\" data-theme-name=\"independent\">\n<aside class=\"sc-hez36s-0 dFpFuY\">\n<div class=\"sc-hez36s-1 iBibVd\">\n<h3 data-testid=\"support-nsc-title\" class=\"sc-hez36s-2 jVZWGn\">Your support helps us to tell the story<\/h3>\n<div class=\"sc-hez36s-8 juUDRT\">\n<div class=\"sc-hez36s-13 cqPbFA\">\n<div class=\"sc-aja53j-0 rAFIl sc-hez36s-16 jZSKtc\">\n<div class=\"sc-aja53j-6 PdmgT\">\n<div data-testid=\"dropdown-with-gradient-collapsed-content-container\" class=\"sc-aja53j-5 eZqxmv\">\n<div>\n<div data-testid=\"dropdown-with-gradient-collapsed-content\" class=\"sc-aja53j-4 tawua\">\n<div>\n<div data-testid=\"support-nsc-collapsed-content-tablet\" class=\"sc-hez36s-7 gZmYS\">\n<p class=\"sc-1uza6dc-0 iCTyfe\">From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it&#8217;s investigating the financials of Elon Musk&#8217;s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, &#8216;The A Word&#8217;, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-1uza6dc-0 iCTyfe\">At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-1uza6dc-0 iCTyfe\">The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.<\/p>\n<p><strong class=\"sc-1uza6dc-1 cglitp\">Your support makes all the difference.<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><button class=\"sc-aja53j-1 keLMOw sc-aja53j-7 eMEmGu\"><span data-testid=\"dropdown-with-gradient-dropdown-tablet\" class=\"sc-aja53j-3 dHXFkr\"><span data-action-type=\"Read more\" class=\"sc-aja53j-2 dcYUYI\">Read more<\/span><\/span><\/button><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>A Los Angeles <a href=\"https:\/\/www.the-independent.com\/topic\/courtroom\">courtroom<\/a> is hosting what may become the most consequential legal challenge Big <a href=\"https:\/\/www.the-independent.com\/topic\/tech\">Tech<\/a> has ever faced.<\/p>\n<p>This is an inflection point in the global debate over <a href=\"https:\/\/www.the-independent.com\/topic\/big-tech\">Big Tech<\/a> liability: For the first time, an American jury is being asked to decide whether platform design itself can give rise to product liability \u2013 not because of what users post on them, but because of how they were built.<\/p>\n<p>As a technology policy and law scholar, I believe that the decision, whatever the outcome, will likely generate a powerful domino effect in the United States and across jurisdictions worldwide.<\/p>\n<p><h2>The case<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<p>The plaintiff is a 20-year-old California <a href=\"https:\/\/www.the-independent.com\/topic\/woman\">woman<\/a> identified by her initials, K.G.M. She said she began using YouTube around age 6 and created an Instagram account at age 9. Her lawsuit and testimony allege that the platforms\u2019 design features, which include likes, algorithmic recommendation engines, infinite scroll, autoplay and deliberately unpredictable rewards, got her addicted. The suit alleges that her addiction fueled depression, anxiety, body dysmorphia \u2013 when someone see themselves as ugly or disfigured when they aren\u2019t \u2013 and suicidal thoughts.<\/p>\n<p>TikTok and Snapchat settled with K.G.M. before trial for undisclosed sums, leaving <a href=\"https:\/\/www.the-independent.com\/topic\/meta\">Meta<\/a> and Google as the remaining defendants. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified before the jury on Feb. 18, 2026.<\/p>\n<p>The stakes extend far beyond one plaintiff. K.G.M.\u2019s case is a bellwether trial, meaning the court chose it as a representative test case to help determine verdicts across all connected <a href=\"https:\/\/www.the-independent.com\/topic\/cases\">cases<\/a>. Those cases involve approximately 1,600 plaintiffs, including more than 350 families and over 250 school districts. Their claims have been consolidated in a California Judicial Council Coordination Proceeding, No. 5255.<\/p>\n<p>The California proceeding shares legal teams and evidence pool, including internal Meta documents, with a federal multidistrict litigation that is scheduled to advance in court later this year, bringing together thousands of federal lawsuits.<\/p>\n<p><h2>Legal innovation: Design as defect<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<p>For decades, Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act shielded technology <a href=\"https:\/\/www.the-independent.com\/topic\/companies\">companies<\/a> from liability for content that their users post. Whenever people sued over harms linked to social media, companies invoked Section 230, and the cases typically died early.<\/p>\n<p>The K.G.M. litigation uses a different legal strategy: negligence-based product liability. The plaintiffs argue that the harm arises not from third-party content but from the platforms\u2019 own engineering and design decisions, the \u201cinformational architecture\u201d and features that shape users\u2019 experience of content. Infinite scrolling, autoplay, notifications calibrated to heighten anxiety and variable-reward systems operate on the same behavioral principles as slot machines.<\/p>\n<p>These are conscious product design choices, and the plaintiffs contend they should be subject to the same safety obligations as any other manufactured product, thereby holding their makers accountable for negligence, strict liability or breach of warranty of fitness.<\/p>\n<p>Judge Carolyn Kuhl of the California Superior Court agreed that these claims warranted a jury trial. In her Nov. 5, 2025, ruling denying Meta\u2019s motion for summary judgment, she distinguished between features related to content publishing, which Section 230 might protect, and features like notification timing, engagement loops and the absence of meaningful parental controls, which it might not.<\/p>\n<div class=\"sc-awdjp1-2 cbpRGD sc-awdjp1-3 image align-center\">\n<figure class=\"sc-1cbdeug-0 cXcwgU\">\n<div class=\"sc-awdjp1-0 iVuBHg\"><img data-opt-id=758893364  fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/ywAAAAAAQABAAACAUwAOw==\" fifu-lazy=\"1\" fifu-data-sizes=\"auto\" fifu-data-srcset=\"https:\/\/mlmjbqro95r8.i.optimole.com\/cb:bOxR.6a5\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/f:best\/https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/static.the-independent.com\/2025\/03\/30\/15\/13\/iStock-1487977598-copy.jpeg?ssl=1&w=75&resize=75&ssl=1 75w, https:\/\/mlmjbqro95r8.i.optimole.com\/cb:bOxR.6a5\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/f:best\/https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/static.the-independent.com\/2025\/03\/30\/15\/13\/iStock-1487977598-copy.jpeg?ssl=1&w=100&resize=100&ssl=1 100w, https:\/\/mlmjbqro95r8.i.optimole.com\/cb:bOxR.6a5\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/f:best\/https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/static.the-independent.com\/2025\/03\/30\/15\/13\/iStock-1487977598-copy.jpeg?ssl=1&w=150&resize=150&ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/mlmjbqro95r8.i.optimole.com\/cb:bOxR.6a5\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/f:best\/https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/static.the-independent.com\/2025\/03\/30\/15\/13\/iStock-1487977598-copy.jpeg?ssl=1&w=240&resize=240&ssl=1 240w, https:\/\/mlmjbqro95r8.i.optimole.com\/cb:bOxR.6a5\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/f:best\/https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/static.the-independent.com\/2025\/03\/30\/15\/13\/iStock-1487977598-copy.jpeg?ssl=1&w=320&resize=320&ssl=1 320w, https:\/\/mlmjbqro95r8.i.optimole.com\/cb:bOxR.6a5\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/f:best\/https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/static.the-independent.com\/2025\/03\/30\/15\/13\/iStock-1487977598-copy.jpeg?ssl=1&w=500&resize=500&ssl=1 500w, https:\/\/mlmjbqro95r8.i.optimole.com\/cb:bOxR.6a5\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/f:best\/https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/static.the-independent.com\/2025\/03\/30\/15\/13\/iStock-1487977598-copy.jpeg?ssl=1&w=640&resize=640&ssl=1 640w, https:\/\/mlmjbqro95r8.i.optimole.com\/cb:bOxR.6a5\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/f:best\/https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/static.the-independent.com\/2025\/03\/30\/15\/13\/iStock-1487977598-copy.jpeg?ssl=1&w=800&resize=800&ssl=1 800w, https:\/\/mlmjbqro95r8.i.optimole.com\/cb:bOxR.6a5\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/f:best\/https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/static.the-independent.com\/2025\/03\/30\/15\/13\/iStock-1487977598-copy.jpeg?ssl=1&w=1024&resize=1024&ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/mlmjbqro95r8.i.optimole.com\/cb:bOxR.6a5\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/f:best\/https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/static.the-independent.com\/2025\/03\/30\/15\/13\/iStock-1487977598-copy.jpeg?ssl=1&w=1280&resize=1280&ssl=1 1280w, https:\/\/mlmjbqro95r8.i.optimole.com\/cb:bOxR.6a5\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/f:best\/https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/static.the-independent.com\/2025\/03\/30\/15\/13\/iStock-1487977598-copy.jpeg?ssl=1&w=1600&resize=1600&ssl=1 1600w\" fifu-data-src=\"https:\/\/mlmjbqro95r8.i.optimole.com\/cb:bOxR.6a5\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/f:best\/https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/static.the-independent.com\/2025\/03\/30\/15\/13\/iStock-1487977598-copy.jpeg?ssl=1\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"The suit alleges that an addiction fueled depression, anxiety, body dysmorphia \u2013 when someone see themselves as ugly or disfigured when they aren\u2019t\" class=\"sc-1mc30lb-0 ggpMaE\"><\/div><figcaption class=\"sc-1cbdeug-1 sc-1cbdeug-3 gtVitN hgzWpY\">The suit alleges that an addiction fueled depression, anxiety, body dysmorphia \u2013 when someone see themselves as ugly or disfigured when they aren\u2019t<span class=\"sc-1cbdeug-7 exGSyR\"> <!-- -->(<!-- -->Getty\/iStock<!-- -->)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>Here, Kuhl established that the conduct-versus-content distinction \u2013 treating algorithmic design choices as the company\u2019s own conduct rather than as the protected publication of third-party speech \u2013 was a viable legal theory for a jury to evaluate. This fine-grained approach, evaluating each design feature individually and recognizing the increased complexities of technology products\u2019 design, represents a potential road map for courts nationwide.<\/p>\n<p><h2>What the companies knew<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<p>The product liability theory depends partly on what companies knew about the risks of their designs. The 2021 leak of internal Meta documents, widely known as the \u201cFacebook Papers,\u201d revealed that the company\u2019s own <a href=\"https:\/\/www.the-independent.com\/topic\/researchers\">researchers<\/a> had flagged concerns about Instagram\u2019s effects on adolescent body image and mental health.<\/p>\n<p>Internal communications disclosed in the K.G.M. proceedings have included exchanges among Meta employees comparing the platform\u2019s effects to pushing drugs and gambling. Whether this internal awareness constitutes the kind of corporate knowledge that supports liability is a central factual question for the jury to decide.<\/p>\n<p>There is a clear analogy to tobacco litigation. In the 1990s, plaintiffs succeeded against tobacco companies by proving they had concealed evidence about the addictive and deadly nature of their products. In K.G.M., the plaintiffs here are making the same core argument: Where there is corporate knowledge, deliberate targeting and public denial, liability follows.<\/p>\n<p>K.G.M.\u2019s lead trial attorney, Mark Lanier, is the same lawyer who won multibillion-dollar verdicts in the Johnson &amp; Johnson baby powder litigation, signaling the scale of accountability they are pursuing.<\/p>\n<p><h2>The science: Contested but consequential<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<p>The scientific evidence on social media and youth mental health is real but genuinely complex. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) does not classify social media use as an addictive disorder. Researchers like Amy Orben have found that large-scale studies show small average associations between social media use and reduced well-being.<\/p>\n<p>Yet Orben herself has cautioned that these averages might mask severe harms experienced by a subset of vulnerable young users, particularly girls ages 12 to 15. The legal question under the negligence theory is not whether social media harms everyone equally, but whether platform designers had an obligation to account for foreseeable interactions between their design features and the vulnerabilities of developing minds, especially when internal evidence suggested they were aware of the risks.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"sc-1kgrxrh-0 cwsJCk\">\n<h2 class=\"sc-1kgrxrh-3 gquCqE\">About the author<\/h2><figcaption class=\"sc-1kgrxrh-5 iIHnqS\">\n<p>Carolina Rossini is a Professor of Practice and Director for Program, Public Interest Technology Initiative at UMass Amherst. This article is republished from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.the-independent.com\/topic\/the-conversation\">The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/how-instagram-addictiveness-lawsuit-could-reshape-social-media-platform-design-meets-product-liability-277066\">original article<\/a>. <\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>First, a manufacturer has a duty to exercise reasonable care in designing its product, and that duty extends to harms that are reasonably foreseeable. Second, the plaintiff must show that the type of injury suffered was a foreseeable consequence of the design choice. The manufacturer doesn\u2019t need to have foreseen the exact injury to the exact plaintiff, but the general category of harm must have been within the range of what a reasonable designer would anticipate.<\/p>\n<p>This is why the Facebook Papers and internal Meta research are so legally significant in K.G.M.\u2019s case: They go directly to establishing that the company\u2019s own researchers identified the specific categories of harm \u2013 depression, body dysmorphia, compulsive use patterns among adolescent girls \u2013 that the plaintiff alleges she suffered. If the company\u2019s own data flagged these risks and leadership continued on the same design trajectory, that would considerably strengthen the foreseeability element.<\/p>\n<p><h2>Why it matters<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<p>Even if the science is unsettled, the legal and policy landscape is shifting fast. In 2025 alone, 20 states in the U.S. enacted new laws governing children\u2019s social media use. And this wave is not only in the U.S.; countries such as the U.K., Australia, Denmark, France and Brazil are also moving forward with specific legislation, including mandates banning social media for those under 16.<\/p>\n<p>The K.G.M. trial represents something more fundamental: the proposition that algorithmic design decisions are product decisions, carrying real obligations of safety and accountability. If this framework takes hold, every platform will need to reconsider not just what content appears, but why and how it is delivered.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/blockads.fivefilters.org\"> <\/a><\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/blockads.fivefilters.org\/acceptable.html\"> <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8230; the most consequential legal challenge Big <span class=\"match\">Tech<\/span> has ever faced. This is &#8230; in the global debate over Big <span class=\"match\">Tech<\/span> liability: For the first time, an American &#8230; and recognizing the increased complexities of <span class=\"match\">technology<\/span> products\u00e2\u0080\u0099 design, represents a potential road &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-113916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113916"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113916\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}