Snap reaches settlement in social media addiction lawsuit

Days ahead of a scheduled trial, social media company Snap has 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 California Superior Court in Los Angeles County. The lawsuit against Snap was brought by a 19-year-old known in court documents as K.G.M., accusing the social media app of designing algorithms and features that caused addiction and mental health issues.

The terms of the settlement were not disclosed.

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

According to documents unveiled in the ongoing cases, Snap employees raised concerns around risks to the mental health of teens dating back at least nine years. The company has said these examples were “cherry-picked” and were taken out of context.

Plaintiffs in these cases are drawing parallels to Big Tobacco — referring to lawsuits in the 1990s against cigarette companies that concealed health risks — alleging that the platforms obscured information about potential harms from their users. They argue that features like infinite scroll, auto video play and algorithmic recommendations have tricked users into continuously using apps, leading to depression, eating disorders, and self-harm, according to NYT.

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

If plaintiffs prevail, legal experts predict the 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 those same design choices — like algorithmic recommendations, push notifications, and infinite scroll — are similar to a newspaper deciding what stories to publish and are protected speech under the First Amendment.

Snap did not immediately respond to a request for comment.