الشبكات الاجتماعية والصحة العقلية: سناب شات يواجه هيئة محلفين لأول مرة مع إنستغرام: الأخبار
Here’s the English translation of the provided Arabic text:
For the first time, Snapchat’s messaging app will have to defend itself before a public jury on charges of addiction among young people, following Instagram (Meta) being found responsible this year, in a new bellwether trial beginning Wednesday in Los Angeles.
Amidst the wave of lawsuits filed against social media networks in the United States, its parent company Snap has until now always reached an amicable settlement before a hearing, thereby avoiding the first bellwether trial in Los Angeles which resulted in an unprecedented verdict against Meta and YouTube (Google).
This time, jury selection begins on Wednesday, and the proceedings, scheduled to start on November 4, are expected to continue until mid-December. Snap and Meta may still opt for a settlement between now and the issuance of the verdict.
Meta and Snap CEOs, Mark Zuckerberg and Evan Spiegel, are expected to testify in mid-November, as is Instagram’s head, Adam Mosseri, according to the plaintiffs’ attorneys.
They accuse these platforms of being designed to create addiction, leading to depression, anxiety, eating disorders, and self-harm. SJ, 16, from Illinois, has settled with Meta and is now suing only Snap; KDB, 18, from Mississippi, is targeting both groups.
Their cases are expected to serve as a benchmark for resolving thousands of other consolidated complaints before California courts.
– Everyone has their own strategy –
In March, the first Los Angeles jury awarded $6 million to a 20-year-old woman named KGM, finding Meta and YouTube partially responsible for her problems due to negligence. Judge Carolyn Cole, who is also presiding over this second trial, upheld the verdict in June; both groups have appealed.
Since then, the four targeted platforms have pursued different strategies. After its previous experience, YouTube is now making concessions: it reached an amicable settlement with SJ and KDB before this trial. Similarly, TikTok has systematically avoided juries until now and agreed to pay at least $100 million to Alabama at the end of September to avoid its first public court appearance.
Meta, the primary target of these lawsuits, has also begun making concessions in some cases.
A company spokesperson affirmed in July: “We will not give up defending ourselves against unfounded lawsuits.”
Since then, the group has reached an agreement with nearly all US states, and then with SJ last week, for an undisclosed sum, according to her lawyers.
– Pressure from US states –
The agreement Meta reached at the end of August with attorneys general, which involves over $18 billion and new limits for teenagers on Instagram and Facebook, has increased pressure on its competitors: a portion of the payment was suspended, contingent on TikTok, YouTube, and Snap adopting similar restrictions.
Through negotiations with Alabama, TikTok also accepted a daily limit of two hours and a nightly ban for minors, measures that align with those agreed upon by Meta.
While many countries seek to regulate, or even ban (Australia and Indonesia), teenagers’ use of social media, US lawsuits target the platforms’ design, which is deemed addictive, and their alleged deceptive practices. As in March, plaintiffs are attacking Snapchat’s message streaks or Instagram’s “likes,” rather than the content itself, from which US law largely exempts platforms.
Meanwhile, a separate federal proceeding, based in Oakland, near San Francisco, is consolidating thousands of other complaints from families and school districts against the same platforms. The four groups opted to pay a total of $27 million in May to avoid the first lawsuit brought by a school in Kentucky.
Another district is scheduled to face them before a jury in February 2027, unless an amicable settlement is reached by then.
Published October 28, 2026, 4:53 AM AFP
