Meta and YouTube Found Guilty of Negligance

On March 25, in a landmark verdict made by a California jury, Meta and YouTube, both major social media companies, were found guilty of negligence. These social media apps damaged a 20-year-old woman who goes by K.G.M., stating that social media companies deliberately create addictive products using infinite content for endless scrolling and more. She said social media led to a decline in her mental health, causing anxiety and depression.

Meta and YouTube are now facing a combined six million to compensate for damages. Furthermore, on March 24, just a day before, a New Mexico state jury found Meta guilty for failing to safeguard users from child predators, leading to Meta having to pay 375 million.

This is not the first time that someone has filed a lawsuit against social media companies. K.G.M. is but one of thousands of teenagers, school districts, and attorneys who see this as a huge win, further confirming their theories that social media is harmful. Not only this, in future cases, this is legal evidence that can be used to support claims about the dangers of social media.

K.G.M.’s story stands out as one of the strongest personal injury cases. She testified that social media was a way out of her childhood hardships and that it contributed to her insecurities and body dysmorphia. One of her lawyers, Mark Lanier, provided an interesting example of the profit of social media companies. He showed a jar of M&M’s, where each M&M is a billion dollars of the companies’ value. He testified that even losing a few million or even billions of dollars, taking out a few M&M’s, wouldn’t make much of a difference.

“You can take out a handful and not make a difference. You can take out two handfuls and not make a difference,” he said.

After the jury decided on $3 million in damages, Google and Meta spokespeople have stated that they disagree with the verdict and are looking to appeal.

José Casteñada, a Google spokesman said, “This case misunderstands YouTube, which is a responsibly built streaming platform, not a social media site.”

A Meta spokeswoman said, “We respectfully disagree with the verdict and are evaluating our legal options.” She also stated that teen mental health is “profoundly complex and cannot be linked to a single app.”

However, our focus should be on the future generations, as jurors Matthew and Victoria pointed out.

Victoria stated their reason for not awarding K.G.M. much more money was that, “We wanted to focus on the future and what teens and children would be subjected to in the future.”

Sources: https://www.npr.org/2026/03/25/nx-s1-5746125/meta-youtube-social-media-trial-verdict