Meta and Google have lost their bid for a new trial in a youth social media addiction case, with a Los Angeles judge upholding a jury verdict that found both liable for designing Instagram and YouTube in ways that harmed a young user, according to Reuters. The companies had argued Section 230 shielded them, but the judge ruled it didn’t apply because the claims turned on design choices, like deliberately stimulating features, rather than user content, and jurors were instructed to keep content out of their deliberations. Both plan to appeal the $6M award, which is one of thousands of similar suits, more than 3,300 in California state court alone against Meta, Google, Snap, and TikTok’s ByteDance, and lands alongside a separate $375M judgment against Meta in New Mexico.
