Lawyers in landmark social media addiction trial make final appeals to the jury

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After astir a period of proceeding from addiction experts, therapists, level engineers and executives, including Mark Zuckerberg, a assemblage volition perceive to closing arguments earlier heading to the deliberation country to determine whether societal media companies sh...

ByKAITLYN HUAMANI AND BARBARA ORTUTAY AP exertion writers

LOS ANGELES -- After astir a period of proceeding from addiction experts, therapists, level engineers and executives, including Mark Zuckerberg, a assemblage volition perceive to closing arguments earlier heading to the deliberation country to determine whether societal media companies should beryllium liable for harms caused to children utilizing their platforms.

Closing statements successful the proceedings volition statesman Thursday astatine the Spring Street Courthouse successful Los Angeles. Lawyers representing the plaintiff, a 20-year-old woman, and those representing the 2 defendants, Meta and Google-owned YouTube, volition marque their respective cases to the jurors. TikTok and Snap were besides named defendants successful the lawsuit, but they each settled earlier the proceedings began.

The case, on with 2 others, has been selected arsenic a bellwether trial, meaning its result could interaction however thousands of akin lawsuits against societal media companies are apt to play out.

The plaintiff, identified arsenic KGM successful documents oregon Kaley, arsenic her lawyers person called her during the trial, says her aboriginal usage of societal media addicted her to the exertion and exacerbated slump and suicidal thoughts.

Both the defendants and the plaintiff person pointed to a turbulent location beingness for Kaley. Her attorneys accidental she was preyed upon arsenic a susceptible user, but attorneys representing Meta and Google-owned YouTube person argued Kaley turned to their platforms arsenic a coping mechanics oregon a means of escaping her intelligence wellness struggles.

Throughout the trial, Meta argued that Kaley faced important challenges earlier she ever utilized societal media. The company's lawyer, Paul Schmidt, said earlier this period that the halfway question successful the lawsuit is whether the platforms were a important origin successful Kayley's intelligence wellness struggles.

Instead of focusing connected Kaley, the attorneys representing YouTube reason that it is not a societal media level and that its features are not addictive.