A 15-year-old Florida resident, identified in court documents as R.K.C., has voluntarily dismissed his lawsuit against Meta. The teenager had alleged that the company’s platforms, including Instagram, utilized features like infinite scrolling and autoplay to foster compulsive usage, resulting in sleep deprivation and anxiety.
This decision follows the teenager's recent settlement of similar claims against TikTok, Snapchat, and YouTube. Legal representatives for the plaintiff, Emily Jeffcott and Rahul Ravipudi, stated that their client achieved his goal of advocating for accountability and protections for young users. They noted that the decision to drop the case was influenced by a desire to avoid the strain of a lengthy jury trial and to prioritize his personal recovery and therapy.
A spokesperson for Meta confirmed that the company provided no financial payment to the plaintiff in exchange for dropping the case, describing the allegations as baseless. The lawsuit was part of a broader wave of litigation in the Los Angeles Superior Court, where hundreds of cases allege that social media companies have caused harm to minors.
The legal landscape regarding these platforms remains active. While Meta and YouTube are currently appealing a previous verdict that ordered them to pay $6 million in damages to another user, additional trials are scheduled to proceed, with the next case expected to begin in October.
Source: BBC News
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