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Social media goes on trial in LA - here's what you need to know
Social media is on trial in Los Angeles.
What happens next could change the way they operate. Inside LA's superior court, a landmark trial is getting under way.
Social media companies are being accused of being addictive by design, a bit like tobacco and cigarettes were in the 1980s. They'll face around 22 "bellwether" lawsuits, i.e.
test cases, with lawyers considering the testimonies of more than 1,500 people when launching the action. Opening statements for the first lawsuit will start on Monday, with Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg among the tech execs expected to testify.
Over the years, people have tried to sue the owners of Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, TikTok and Snapchat for online harm, but they've largely failed. Often, social media companies will rely on a defence called Section 230 of America's Communications Act, which protects online platforms publishing third-party content.
It says they're not responsible for content posted by users on their platforms. So what makes this court case so different? For the first time, social media companies will face a trial by jury.
Those jurors won't decide whether specific content on the platforms was harmful. Instead, they'll decide whether social media companies were negligent when they created and tweaked their products to encourage people to spend more time on them.
Read more science and technology news:Autism rates between girls and boys challenged by new studyThe new Anthropic AI model scaring lawyers and legal firmsElon Musk's xAI chatbot Grok faces ICO probe A feature expected to come up, for example, is "infinite scrolling.
Amir Nisi
Creative and experienced content writer with 6+ years of experience lazy to create unique content strategy for News5 to turn website visitors into customers.
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