"The world's largest social media companies have been accused of creating "addiction machines" as a landmark trial began in California examining the mental health effects of Instagram and YouTube. In his opening argument before Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Carolyn B. Kuhl and a jury, Mark Lanier argued that his client, plaintiff "K.G.M.," suffered from mental health issues as a result of her social media addiction."
""These companies built machines designed to addict the brains of children, and they did it on purpose," Lanier said. Lawyers for Meta and YouTube told the jury that K.G.M.'s addiction stemmed from other issues in her life, not their negligence. K.G.M. will be referred to by her initials, or as Kaley G.M., because the alleged harms took place when she was a minor."
""I'm going to show you the addiction machine that they built, the internal documents that people normally don't get to see, and emails from [Meta CEO] Mark Zuckerberg and YouTube executives." In a selected portion of a 2015 email Lanier showed the court, Zuckerberg demanded that "time spent increases by 12%" on Meta platforms in order to meet internal business goals. As for YouTube, Lanier said the platform, owned by Google, intentionally targeted young users because it could "charge advertisers more"."
A landmark California trial alleges that Meta and YouTube engineered their platforms to addict children and caused a minor's mental health problems. The plaintiff, identified as K.G.M. or Kaley G.M., claims social media addiction led to mental health issues. Plaintiff's attorney Mark Lanier presented internal documents and emails, including a 2015 message showing Mark Zuckerberg demanding a 12% increase in time spent. Lanier argued YouTube intentionally targeted young users to charge advertisers more. Meta and YouTube defended by saying the plaintiff's addiction stemmed from other personal issues and denied negligence and failure to warn about platform dangers.
Read at www.bbc.com
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