How a Social Media Addiction Trial Threatens Big Tech: QuickTake

Two of the world’s largest social media platforms are facing a jury trial over allegations that they intentionally designed their products to be addictive to young people — drawing comparisons to Big Tobacco’s reckoning with consumer addiction three decades ago.

The trial in Los Angeles, the first of its kind, centers on a 20-year-old woman who says her nonstop use for more than a decade of sites including Meta Platforms Inc.’s Instagram and Google’s YouTube caused her to suffer anxiety, depression and body dysmorphia. The companies are exposed to potentially billions of dollars in damages and the possibility ...