Meta and Snap Go on Trial in LA Over Teen Social Media Addiction

Jury selection begins in Los Angeles today, 28 October, in the second US trial over claims that social media apps were designed to hook young users and harm their mental health. The Los Angeles Superior Court’s case calendar for the coordinated “Social Media Cases”, case JCCP 5255, lists a jury trial starting at 9am in Department 12 of the Spring Street courthouse.

The defendants are Meta, which owns Instagram and Facebook, and Snap, which makes Snapchat. Both deny the claims. It is the first time Snap has gone to trial in this litigation, AFP said.

Two plaintiffs, one jury

The plaintiffs are known in court papers by their initials. Reuters describes S.J. as a 16-year-old girl from Illinois and K.D.B. as an 18-year-old woman from Mississippi. Both sued in 2023. According to Reuters, they say they began using YouTube as early as age three or four and other platforms around nine, and that autoplay, infinite scroll and other features drove them to compulsive use. Both describe staying up for hours scrolling, losing focus in class and harming themselves using methods shown in social media videos. They are seeking unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.

Plaintiffs’ co-lead counsel in the California proceeding, Beasley Allen, said in its October report that S.J. and K.D.B. were Judge Carolyn Kuhl’s “remaining Trial Pool 2 bellwethers” and remained “set for trial at the end of this month”. A bellwether is a test case, chosen to show how juries respond to claims shared by many others.

The defendant list has shrunk. The two plaintiffs first sued TikTok and Alphabet’s YouTube as well, but settled with both before trial, Reuters reported. S.J. also settled with Meta. The trial therefore covers both plaintiffs’ claims against Snap and only K.D.B.’s claims against Meta. AFP said a California judge had joined the cases into one trial and that opening statements are due on 4 November if there are no more settlements. Reuters reported that Meta and Snap had asked Judge Kuhl to split the cases, arguing that a joint trial would mix up the evidence for jurors, and that she had not yet ruled.

What Meta and Snap say

Meta disagrees with the claims and says it has built protections into its platforms for a decade, according to Reuters. “A young person’s mental health is shaped by many factors, as the evidence in this trial will show,” a Meta spokesperson said. “The plaintiff used TikTok far more than Instagram or Facebook, and her personal circumstances were a substantial factor in her struggles.”

Snap plans to argue that Snapchat is different from other social media. A spokesperson told Reuters that the app does not open to a feed or to a ranking of what other people post, and that it has safeguards built in. “We believe the evidence will support that we have put our community first, and that these allegations fundamentally misrepresent their experiences on Snapchat and how our platform was designed,” the spokesperson said.

Emily Jeffcott, a lawyer for the Mississippi plaintiff, said in a statement that “we look forward to educating the jury about the dangers of features like endless feeds, autoplay and streaks”, Reuters reported. Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg, Instagram head Adam Mosseri and Snap chief executive Evan Spiegel are expected to testify, with the trial due to run for several weeks.

Why the second verdict carries more weight than the first

One verdict can be dismissed as a one-off. Two in a row would be much harder to wave away. In March, a Los Angeles jury found Meta and YouTube negligent in the case of a young woman known as Kaley G.M. and awarded $6m, according to Reuters. Since then, cases set for trial have mostly ended in settlements or dropped claims. This trial tests whether that first result can be repeated against a different mix of companies and, for the first time, against Snap.

Snap’s defence is the one to watch. Its case is that a messaging app with no main feed is a different product from Instagram. If the jury accepts that, platforms could start defending these claims feature by feature rather than as one industry. If it does not, design choices such as streaks and autoplay become the issue, whatever kind of app they sit in.

The stakes go well beyond two plaintiffs. Reuters said more than 3,000 lawsuits have been consolidated in the Los Angeles court and more than 3,800 are pending in federal court in California. Meta has already taken a $9.89bn charge to settle teen mental health claims with US states, and a New Mexico judge recently ordered it to pay $25bn in a separate privacy case, according to reports. Members of Meta’s legal team told reporters in August that individual cases are harder to prove than the states’ cases, because each plaintiff must link specific harm to specific platforms, Reuters said. This jury is where that argument gets tested.

Legal fights and bans are moving at the same time

US families are fighting their case in the courts, while other countries are setting age limits in law. Greece has just passed a social media ban for under-15s that puts age checks on the platforms. A verdict for the plaintiffs here would add pressure for design changes from a different direction: damages, not regulation.

Meta is also appealing the March verdict, arguing that Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act should have barred the claims, Reuters reported. The trial judge has ruled that Section 230 does not cover claims about how the apps are designed. A win for Meta on appeal could undermine thousands of cases.

What comes next

Opening statements are expected on 4 November, AFP said. The court calendar also lists the next jury trial in the coordinated cases for 16 March 2027.

Sources

1. Los Angeles Superior Court, Case Calendar, JCCP5255 Social Media Cases
2. Beasley Allen, Jere Beasley Report, October 2026 (published 2 October 2026)
3. Reuters via CNA, Meta and Snap face major US legal test of youth social media addiction claims, 28 October 2026
4. AFP via France 24, Meta, Snap head to trial in another case about social media’s harms, 28 October 2026

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