TikTok has reached a confidential settlement in a landmark lawsuit over youth mental health, leaving Meta and YouTube to face a jury in California as the first major trial of its kind gets underway.
The agreement was announced by one of the plaintiff’s lawyers as jury selection opened in Los Angeles, removing TikTok from what had been expected to be a multi-company test of claims that social media design harms young users.
Terms of the settlement were not disclosed. Snap, also named in the original suit, reached its own settlement on 20 January.
The case centres on a 19-year-old Californian identified as K.G.M., who says she became addicted to the companies’ platforms at a young age because of their attention-driven design.
She blames years of depression and suicidal thoughts on the apps and is seeking to hold the companies that created them responsible.
Her lawsuit is one of three bellwether cases selected from hundreds of related filings across the United States.
With TikTok and Snap no longer part of the proceedings, the first trial will focus on Meta and YouTube.
Both continue to face allegations that their products contribute to a wider youth mental health crisis, a claim they reject.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is expected to testify.
Legal teams say the outcome of the case will shape how the remaining lawsuits are handled and could signal whether courts are prepared to challenge the long-standing legal protections that Big Tech companies have relied on for decades.
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Australia's government said on Tuesday that Meta, Alphabet’s Google and TikTok could be penalised unless they negotiate payments with local media outlets for news carried on their platforms.
A Los Angeles jury on Wednesday found Alphabet’s Google and Meta liable for $6m in damages in a landmark social media addiction lawsuit, a ruling that could influence thousands of similar cases.
ByteDance will take steps to prevent the unauthorised use of intellectual property on its artificial intelligence (AI) video generator Seedance 2.0, the Chinese technology firm said on Monday.
Britain’s government has launched a TikTok account featuring footage of raids on migrants suspected of working illegally, as part of an effort to persuade voters and potential arrivals that it is getting to grips with immigration.
SpaceX has made history with the largest initial public offering ever in the United States, pricing its shares at $135 each and achieving a market valuation of $1.77 trillion.
SpaceX made a historic entrance into the Nasdaq on Friday, surging over 20% in its first day of trading and lifting its valuation to more than $2 trillion. Investors flocked to the world’s largest IPO, betting on Elon Musk’s sprawling empire spanning rockets, AI and beyond.
Pakistan has warned that any attempt by India to block or significantly reduce river flows under the Indus Waters Treaty could have “far-reaching consequences”, after India's water minister said New Delhi was working to ensure that “not a single drop” of water reaches Pakistan in the coming years.
While France hosts next week’s Group of Seven summit, businesses in neighbouring Switzerland have already begun taking precautions, with many shops in Geneva boarded up ahead of a large anti-G7 demonstration expected on Sunday.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk have criticised Britain, France and Germany for leaving them out of talks with Russia about a potential future peace deal for Ukraine.
The Canadian government has introduced a digital safety bill that would ban children under the age of 16 from using social media, unless platforms meet specific safety standards.
NASA has named three American astronauts and one Italian astronaut to fly on its Artemis III mission, a major orbital test planned for late next year that will evaluate lunar landing vehicles developed by SpaceX and Blue Origin.
China will send an astronaut to its space station on Sunday for a one-year mission, the longest duration for the country so far. The mission will help study long-duration human physiology in space as China works toward a crewed Moon landing by 2030.
Anxiety over artificial intelligence is hardening among young workers as executives promote faster adoption and companies point to automation in fresh job cuts.
Hackers are increasingly using artificial intelligence to detect software vulnerabilities, reducing the time organisations have to respond to cyber threats, Verizon said in its annual data breach report.
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