A California state court judge has denied motions by Meta Platforms and Google’s YouTube seeking a new trial after a jury found the companies liable for designing their platforms harmful to young people.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Carolyn Kuhl ruled on the motions on Tuesday, according to court documents. Kuhl rejected the companies’ argument that they are shielded from the claims by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, a federal law that generally protects online platforms from liability over user-generated content. She said the law does not address the companies’ design choices and the jury was repeatedly instructed not to consider content.
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“There was substantial evidence that Plaintiff was harmed by the design features of Instagram, regardless of any of the content found on that platform,” Kuhl wrote.
The lawsuit was brought by a woman who alleged that the deliberately stimulating design of Instagram and YouTube caused her to develop an addiction to both platforms while she was still young. The jury returned a negligence verdict against each company and set total damages at $6 million.
A spokesperson for Meta said the company disagreed with the ruling. “The plaintiffs’ legal theory attempts to improperly circumvent Section 230 and the First Amendment, and we expect this ruling to be overturned on appeal,” the spokesperson said. Google spokesperson José Castañeda separately confirmed in a written statement that the company would pursue an appeal.
Plaintiff’s attorney Mark Lanier described the decision as unsurprising. “The evidence of fault was mountain high,” he said.
The Los Angeles trial was one of the two high profile losses Meta recently faced. Meta was also ordered to pay $375 million in penalties by a New Mexico jury after it was found to violate state law.
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A lawsuit brought forth by the state attorney general accused the tech giant of misleading users about the safety of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp and enabling child sexual exploitation on those platforms. Following those verdicts, plaintiff recruitment advertising tied to social media addiction suits surged across television and radio.
The litigation is taking place on a considerable scale. California state court is currently hosting more than 3,300 addiction-related suits targeting Meta, Google, Snap, and TikTok parent ByteDance. Meanwhile, around 2,400 additional cases filed by private individuals, school districts, municipalities, and state governments have been consolidated before a California federal court.