On the other hand, their opponents have mainly dismissed citizens, the majority of whom are men, for whom the poor mental health of young people is more attributable to failures of parental authority than to the designers of the platforms.
The jury of twelve American citizens and six alternates having been approved on Friday, the opening of the debates is now scheduled for Monday in the superior court of Los Angeles.
In the absence of TikTok and Snapchat, who preferred to settle for a confidential amount, the jury must decide the fate of the complaint from KGM, a 20-year-old Californian. She accuses Meta and YouTube of having knowingly designed addictive applications, to the detriment of her mental health.
Test for mass disputes
The hearing goes beyond his particular case, because his case serves as a test for the mass litigation that weighs on the tech giants, surrounded in the United States by the initiatives of families, elected officials and NGOs.
The selection of jurors, from more than 150 citizens, was dominated by recurring mentions of the boss of Meta, the unpopular creator of Facebook immortalized in the film “Social Network”.
“I feel impartial towards the complainant, but given what Mark Zuckerberg did objectively – and which arouses a strong reaction in me – I think the defense is starting a little late,” admits a young woman.
Like her, a number of potential jurors criticize the beginnings of Facebook – “to attract girls” – or cite the memory of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, an abusive collection of personal data revealed in 2020. All admit that it will be difficult to receive the billionaire’s testimony without a second thought, expected next week or the following.
Inevitably, Meta’s lawyer, Phyllis Jones, requests their dismissal. “It is very important that both sides are equal at the start and that you look at the evidence fairly,” she cautions.
New faces take their place in the box. “I love this guy” and “I regret not having Meta shares,” says a rare fan, before being ousted by the plaintiff’s lawyer Mark Lanier.
A man angry with psychiatrists, several people whose loved ones suffered from addiction or harassment on social networks, a Google shareholder who thinks that parents should be stricter… the revocations follow one another.
Dopamine
“Does everyone understand that Mark Zuckerberg does not run YouTube? “, asks Luis Li, the lawyer for Google’s video service, who is very active in ensuring that the jury does not lump his client in with Instagram. It tests whether they are likely to consider YouTube and its advertising the equal of “old time” TV, never condemned for having organized an addiction to screens.
“I see the potential for YouTube to turn into this immediate dopamine thing” with the “Shorts” video feature, retorts a man whose niece spends too much time on TikTok, which popularized endless scrolling. In fact, the debates will not focus on content, for which platforms are largely protected by American law, but on the design of algorithms and personalization functions.
The plaintiffs accuse this design of being negligent and harmful, repeating a strategy successfully carried out against the tobacco industry. The comparison is strongly disapproved by Meta and YouTube, who asked the judge on Friday to declare illegitimate the arguments comparing their tools to tobacco and other addictive products. Without success.
date: 2026-02-07 22:46:00