TikTok settled a closely watched social media addiction lawsuit on Monday, just before a trial was scheduled to begin in California, marking the second major technology company to exit the case through a settlement.
The agreement follows a settlement reached last week by Snap, the parent company of Snapchat. With TikTok and Snap no longer part of the case, the trial is still expected to proceed against Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, and Google’s YouTube. The lawsuit alleges that the companies engineered their platforms to be addictive and that their products harmed users’ mental health, particularly when used by children and teenagers.
The case is one of the first major lawsuits to reach trial based on claims that social media platforms caused harm to young users through addictive design features and negative mental health effects. It involves a California woman who alleges she became addicted to multiple social media platforms as a child and experienced lasting mental health consequences.
“This is a good resolution, and we are pleased with the settlement,” said Mark Lanier, an attorney for the plaintiff, in a statement. “Our focus has now turned to the Meta and YouTube for this trial.”
The litigation is part of a broader wave of legal challenges brought by individual plaintiffs, school districts, and state attorneys general against major technology companies. These lawsuits have frequently been compared to earlier legal battles against cigarette manufacturers, arguing that companies knowingly designed products that caused harm while downplaying the risks.
Among the most prominent of these cases is New Mexico’s lawsuit against Meta, in which Attorney General Raul Torrez accuses the company of failing to adequately protect teenagers on Facebook and Instagram from sexual predators and exploitation.
Technology companies have consistently argued that they are shielded from liability for user-generated content under Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act. TikTok, Meta, Snap, and other platforms are defendants in numerous additional cases scheduled to go to trial later this year, many of which also center on the relationship between social media use and teenage mental health. Legal experts say that if plaintiffs are successful, the rulings could significantly expand the scope of liability for technology companies accused of creating harmful or defective products.
Across these lawsuits, plaintiffs commonly argue that features such as infinite scrolling, algorithm-driven recommendations, and autoplay videos contribute to compulsive use, worsening mental health, and eating disorders among young users. The companies dispute claims about the prevalence of social media addiction and point to safety measures they say they have introduced in recent years to protect younger users.
Concerns about social media use and declining attention spans among teenagers have circulated for years and have increasingly translated into public policy. A growing number of states and school districts have enacted bans on phone use during the school day, citing the disruptive effects of constant notifications and online engagement. Those measures have drawn broad support from parents, educators, and many students, reflecting a bipartisan push to limit the role of smartphones in educational settings.
