A court in Los Angeles made an important ruling. The companies Meta and Alphabet are guilty. Meta owns Instagram. Alphabet owns Youtube.
A 20 year old woman sued. She used the apps since she was a child. She says: The apps make people addicted. The woman became sick from using them. She suffers from fear problems and sadness.
The jury sides with the woman. The companies did not warn about dangers. They built their programs to be addictive on purpose. Users should use the apps more and more. This is called addiction chance.
The companies must now pay money. The total is 3 million dollars. Meta must pay 70 percent of it. Youtube must pay 30 percent. The ruling is a first example for many other lawsuits.
Meta wants to fight the ruling. The company says: We protect young users. Experts compare the case with lawsuits against tobacco companies. There it was also about addiction and health.
