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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Saudi civil defence sent an all-clear on Saturday after issuing alerts for a second time for potential danger in Riyadh and the city of Al-Kharj east of the capital, amid an uptick in attacks by Iran-aligned Houthis on the Gulf country.
The European Union will disburse €3.3 billion ($3.8 billion) to Ukraine for missiles and drones, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said after a phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The U.S. State Department approved a $2.7 billion military sale to Ukraine for air-defence development upgrades, along with related equipment and services, the department said. Meanwhile, Ukrainian authorities reported at least 10 people had died in Russian attacks over the last 24 hours.
Three students were killed in a school shooting in the southern Philippines on Friday, including a 16-year-old suspected gunman who turned the gun on himself, provincial officials said.
U.S. President Donald Trump announced on Saturday (19 September) the creation of an “AI Force” and plans to appoint an artificial intelligence (AI) czar, while rejecting calls to slow the development of increasingly powerful AI systems.
Google’s Gemini AI model accessed the internet and hacked three companies during a cybersecurity test, in what is believed to be the first known case of the company’s AI systems autonomously carrying out such activity.
Here's your AnewZ Daily Brief for 18 September 2026. These are the top five stories making headlines in the field of science.
French prosecutors have launched a criminal investigation into suspected sexual harassment involving smart glasses, amid mounting global concern over the privacy risks posed by the devices.
Some of the world’s most powerful technology executives are lobbying U.S. President Donald Trump over artificial intelligence regulation, exposing growing divisions within the industry over how governments should respond to rapidly advancing AI.
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