Snap settles lawsuit by two teenagers on the eve of trial in Los Angeles

A deal on the eve of trial

Snap settled a lawsuit brought by two teenagers, identified in court documents by the initials K.D.B. and S.J., who accused the company of deliberately making its platform addictive, which, they claimed, led to depression, anxiety and eating disorders. TechCrunch and AFP reported the news; according to AFP, the deal was reached two days before the trial was set to open in a Los Angeles court and just days after Meta settled its claims in the same case.

Who claimed what

According to AFP, the plaintiffs were expected to prove that they had encountered 'addictive and problematic' apps, having started using social media at ages 13 and 15 respectively. As TechCrunch reports, the plaintiffs said they had used YouTube from age three and other platforms from about age nine, and linked the resulting habit of compulsive use to features such as autoplay and infinite scrolling. TikTok and YouTube were also named as defendants in the case, which consolidated claims from two lawsuits, but both had already settled their portions earlier.

What postponing the trial meant

The case was one of the 'bellwether' trials whose outcomes are expected to set the framework for settling hundreds of similar lawsuits across the US. According to AFP, the key witnesses in the upcoming trial were to have been Mark Zuckerberg, Instagram head Adam Mosseri and Snap CEO Evan Spiegel. Settling before trial, AFP notes, allows companies to limit legal costs and potential payouts, and lets executives avoid testifying and the publication of internal documents. Earlier this year, Meta and YouTube lost the first bellwether trial: jurors found them jointly liable for harm to a minor, KGM, and awarded a total of $6 million; Snap and TikTok settled that suit before trial. In August, Meta agreed to pay more than $18 billion and change Instagram and Facebook for teenagers as part of a settlement with 52 attorneys general, and earlier this month a judge in New Mexico ordered the company to pay $25 billion in a case about misleading users over the use of their data, tied to the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

The parties' positions

In a statement to TechCrunch, Snap said the parties were 'pleased to have the opportunity to resolve the matter amicably' and listed the safety measures and training it had introduced, adding that 'safety is never finished.' The plaintiffs' lawyers told AFP they were proud of the justice achieved for their clients and that their ultimate goal is 'to hold social media companies accountable for how their actions have affected millions of children across the country.' According to AFP, sources close to Meta described business considerations as the reason for its settlement. Thousands of similar lawsuits are being heard in US courts with claims that the companies deliberately designed their platforms to keep young users engaged, worsening the youth mental health crisis — anxiety, depression and suicides.