A Los Angeles jury on Wednesday found Meta and Alphabet's Google negligent for designing social media platforms that are harmful to young people, delivering a $6 million verdict in a case likely to shape thousands more.

The jury awarded $4.2 million in damages against Meta Platforms and $1.8m against Google. While small relative to the companies’ vast resources, the ruling carries outsized significance as a legal test case.

The lawsuit centers on a 20-year-old woman, identified in court as Kaley, who said she became addicted to YouTube and Instagram at a young age.

The plaintiffs successfully focussed on platform design rather than harmful content.

Lawyers argued that features such as “infinite scroll” and algorithmic recommendations were deliberately engineered to maximize engagement and keep users hooked.

The jury found that Google and Meta were negligent in the design of both apps and failed to warn users about their dangers.

"Today’s verdict is a referendum – from a jury, to an entire industry – that accountability has arrived," the plaintiff's lead counsel said in a statement.

Meta and Google disagree with the verdict and plan to appeal, spokespeople for each company said.

How free speech and content moderation factored into the companies' decisions is likely to play a part in any appeal.

Snap and TikTok were also defendants in the trial. Both settled with the plaintiff before it began. Terms of the agreements were not disclosed.

Global bellwether

The case is intended as a bellwether for thousands of similar claims consolidated in California, potentially setting the tone for how courts handle allegations that social media design contributes to harm among young users.

As scrutiny intensifies, governments are under growing pressure to act on how platforms collect data, target content, and monitor online behavior.

Following the verdict, the UK Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, told journalists on Thursday that it was not a question of whether things change but by how much.

“We need to go further, the status quo isn’t good enough, we need to do more to protect children, that’s why we’re consulting on banning social media for under 16s.

“I’m very keen that we do more on addictive features within social media, but I want to be really clear – it’s not if things are going to change. Things are going to change. The question is how much and what we are going to do.”

A UK pilot option to restrict children’s access to social media, which will run till late May, was announced on Wednesday.

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