Meta Lobbies Lawmakers for Social Media Addiction Lawsuit Immunity

Company officials indicate proposed provisions would not include social media addiction lawsuits already filed.

Facing an increasing number of youth social media addiction lawsuits, Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, is now trying to convince lawmakers to grant the industry immunity from damages for problems linked to their platforms.

More than 2,500 such complaints are already filed against Meta, Google, TikTok, Snapchat and other major social media corporations, with plaintiffs ranging from parents and young adults to school districts and states. Each involves allegations the defendants caused serious developmental, educational and mental health problems for youths by intentionally designing social media apps to be addictive.

Many of the lawsuits also include allegations that the companies illegally collected data on minors using their platforms, plugging the information into sophisticated algorithms designed to keep children scrolling longer, increasing their addiction for the sake of profits.

According to plaintiffs, these factors combined can cause anxiety, depression, eating disorders, behavioral problems, self-harm and suicide. Additionally, states and school districts say that the effects of social media addiction lead to the use of huge amounts of taxpayer money for tutoring, counseling and mental health treatment.

Meta Social Media Addiction Lawsuit Trial Losses

As the litigation continues to increase, Meta and other companies have already been hit with multi-million dollar social media addiction lawsuit trial verdicts in state courts nationwide.

In March, a Los Angeles jury ordered Meta and Google to pay $6 million in damages to a woman who said she suffered anxiety and depression due to social media addiction fostered by apps like Facebook and YouTube when she was a minor. 

A couple days earlier, a New Mexico jury ordered Meta to pay $375 million in damages to the state, after finding the company liable for mental health problems linked to social media addiction among teens. 

Social Media Addiction Lawsuit Immunity Sought

A recent Reuters report now indicates Meta has begun lobbying members of Congress to place language into pending legislation that may bar future social media addiction lawsuits, like those that continue to be filed in courts nationwide.

The proposed language would be added to the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), which failed to pass the Senate in 2024, but was reintroduced this year. On Monday, House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Brett Guthrie (R-KY) and Ranking Member Frank Pallone (D-NJ) announced they had reached a bipartisan deal they believe will allow passage of KOSA later this year.

The proposed Meta addition would make social media companies immune from liability for alleged violations of state laws involving child safety and privacy of minors, as well as any other lawsuits linked to KOSA provisions.

Meta officials indicated that the immunity, if granted, would not affect the social media addiction lawsuits and child privacy violation claims it already faces. According to Reuters, no lawmakers have yet taken the company up on its offer.

Federal Social Media Addiction Trials

At the federal level, all social media addiction lawsuits are consolidated in the Northern District of California before U.S. District Court Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, who is shepherding the litigation through coordinated discovery and pretrial proceedings.

Judge Rogers has also guided the parties through the preparation of several representative cases for early test trials. These “bellwether” trials are designed to give the parties an opportunity to see how juries respond to evidence and testimony that would be common to the majority of claims.

The first of those federal bellwether trials was scheduled to begin on June 15, involving claims by the Breathitt County School District in Kentucky. Meta was the last defendant, after Snap, TikTok and YouTube had already settled the litigation.

Meta and the school district informed Judge Rogers in late May that they had also reached a settlement and the case was being dismissed. The details of that agreement have not been released to the public.

The next federal bellwether trial is scheduled to begin on February 8, but no specific case has been assigned to the trial date.

Neither the outcomes of the bellwether trials nor the state trials are binding on any other social media addiction lawsuits, but they are being closely watched, with the results likely to have a major impact on any settlement negotiations.

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