Snap reaches settlement in social media addiction lawsuit

Days before a scheduled trial, social media company Snap settled a lawsuit accusing the platform of causing social media addiction, according to reports from multiple outlets.

According to the New York Times, the settlement was announced Tuesday in the Superior Court of California in Los Angeles County. The lawsuit against Snap was filed by a 19-year-old known in court documents as KGM, accusing the social media app of designing algorithms and features that cause addiction and mental health problems.

Terms of the settlement were not disclosed.

The lawsuit also names other platforms, including Meta, YouTube and TikTok. No settlement was reached with these platforms. Notably, Snap remains a defendant in other similar social media addiction cases filed against it.

According to documents unsealed in the ongoing cases, Snap employees raised concerns about risks to teens’ mental health dating back at least nine years. The company said these examples were “carefully selected” and taken out of context.

Plaintiffs in these cases draw comparisons to Big Tobacco — a reference to lawsuits in the 1990s against cigarette companies that hid health risks — alleging that the platforms withheld information about potential harms from their users. They argue that features such as infinite scrolling, video autoplay, and algorithmic recommendations have tricked users into constantly using apps, leading to depression, eating disorders and self-harm, according to the New York Times.

Snap CEO Evan Spiegel was scheduled to testify in the trial, which would have been the first time a social media company has faced a jury in an addiction lawsuit — and no platform has lost such a case at trial yet. The remaining case against Meta, TikTok, and YouTube is scheduled to continue with jury selection starting next Monday, January 27, with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg expected to take the witness stand.

If the plaintiffs prevail, legal experts expect these cases could result in multibillion-dollar settlements and potentially force platforms to redesign their products. But the companies have so far defended themselves in part by arguing that the design choices themselves — such as algorithmic recommendations, push notifications, and infinite scrolling — are like a newspaper deciding which stories to publish, and are speech protected under the First Amendment.

Snap did not immediately respond to a request for comment.