Name: Instagram, YouTube addiction trial kicks off in Los Angeles
Uploaded: 2026-02-09T17:15:54.000Z
Duration: 1 min 9 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

A California state court case over whether Instagram and YouTube harmed a woman's mental health through addictive app design kicks off on Monday.

It's seen as a test of whether big tech platforms can be held liable for harming children.

Participle clauses

The 20 year old woman, identified as KGM, filed the lawsuit against Instagram, parent company Meta and Alphabet's Google, which owns YouTube, according to court filings.

She says the attention grabbing design of the platforms got her addicted to them at a young age.

She alleges the apps fueled her depression and suicidal thoughts and wants to hold the companies liable.

A verdict against the tech firms could lead the way for similar cases in state court and shake the industry's long standing US legal defense against claims of user harm.

Google, Meta, TikTok and Snap face thousands of lawsuits in California.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is expected to be called as a witness at the trial.

TikTok and Snap settled with KGM before the trial.