LOS ANGELES (AP) — After a few month of listening to from dependancy consultants, therapists, platform engineers and executives, together with Mark Zuckerberga jury will take heed to closing arguments earlier than heading to the deliberation room to resolve whether or not social media corporations ought to be answerable for harms brought about to youngsters utilizing their platforms.
Closing statements within the trial will start Thursday on the Spring Road Courthouse in Los Angeles. Legal professionals representing the plaintiff, a 20-year-old girl, and people representing the 2 defendants, Meta and Google-owned YouTube, will make their respective circumstances to the jurors. TikTok and Snap have been additionally named defendants within the lawsuit, however they every settled earlier than the trial started.
The case, together with two others, has been chosen as a bellwether trial, that means its end result may impression how 1000’s of comparable lawsuits in opposition to social media corporations are more likely to play out.
The plaintiff, recognized as KGM in paperwork or Kaley, as her attorneys have referred to as her in the course of the trial, says her early use of social media addicted her to the expertise and exacerbated melancholy and suicidal ideas.
Each the defendants and the plaintiff have pointed to a turbulent house life for Kaley. Her attorneys say she was preyed upon as a weak person, however attorneys representing Meta and Google-owned YouTube have argued Kaley turned to their platforms as a coping mechanism or a method of escaping her psychological well being struggles.
All through the trial, Meta argued that Kaley confronted important challenges earlier than she ever used social media. The corporate’s lawyer, Paul Schmidt, stated earlier this month that the core query within the case is whether or not the platforms have been a considerable think about Kayley’s psychological well being struggles.
As an alternative of specializing in Kaley, the attorneys representing YouTube argue that it’s not a social media platform and that its options aren’t addictive.