A California jury found both Instagram owner Meta and Google’s parent company Alphabet liable on Wednesday in a lawsuit brought by a 20-year-old woman who alleged that YouTube and Instagram were designed to be addictive to children.
The verdict, reported earlier by Reuters, could have wide ramifications in a host of similar liability cases that have accused tech giants of intentionally creating addictive platforms to hook children as users.
Meta and Google will have to pay $3 million in compensatory damages, to be split between the two tech giants. Meta will pay 70% while Google pays the remaining 30%. There could be additional punitive measures taken as the court continues assessing this case.
“We respectfully disagree with the verdict and are evaluating our legal options,” a Meta spokesperson said in a statement. Google Spokesperson José Castañeda told CNET that the company also disagrees with the verdict and plans to appeal, adding that the
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