The Economic Times·2025-10-20 18:33Core Viewpoint - The ongoing litigation against major social media companies, including Snap Inc., Meta Platforms, ByteDance, and Alphabet, is centered on allegations that these platforms knowingly designed their services to be addictive, leading to severe mental health issues among youth, such as anxiety, depression, and self-harm. This legal battle could result in significant financial settlements and alter the interaction of minors with social media platforms [1][4][5]. Group 1: Legal Proceedings - The lawsuits have been consolidated into two multijurisdictional proceedings, one in state court and the other in federal court, to facilitate the pretrial discovery process [2][5]. - The first bellwether trial is set to commence in Los Angeles Superior Court in late January, involving a 19-year-old plaintiff who claims her social media addiction has led to various mental health issues [4][5]. - If the plaintiffs succeed, the outcomes could lead to multibillion-dollar settlements, similar to those seen in tobacco and opioid litigation [4][5]. Group 2: Impact on Social Media Companies - The litigation poses a significant threat to the future of major social media companies, as thousands of complaints and millions of pages of internal documents are expected to be presented in court [5]. - The legal challenges have largely overcome the protections offered by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which previously shielded social media platforms from user-harm lawsuits [1][2][5]. - The attorney involved in the case emphasized that this litigation could be one of the most impactful of the current era, highlighting the targeting of vulnerable populations, particularly children, by large corporations for profit [5].