Major Court Ruling Strengthens Social Media Addiction Lawsuits

A California court has given families an important win in the fight over social media addiction lawsuits, allowing key scientific evidence to be used at trial.

In September 2025, the Superior Court of California in Los Angeles rejected most of the attempts by major social media companies—including Meta (Facebook and Instagram), Snap Inc. (Snapchat), ByteDance (TikTok), and Google (YouTube)—to block expert witnesses in the coordinated case known as JCCP 5255.

This decision means that plaintiffs, including minors and their families, can move forward with expert testimony showing how the design of social media platforms may contribute to serious youth mental health problems such as addiction, anxiety, and depression.

Why This Ruling Matters

The court’s 87page decision rejected attempts by the social media companies to block testimony from leading experts in psychiatry, neuroscience, pediatrics, and media psychology. The judge ruled that:

• All but one of the plaintiffs’ experts will be allowed to testify at trial.
• The experts used trusted scientific methods, such as longterm studies and reviews of existing research.
• Section 230 protections did not apply because the experts are focusing on how the platforms are designed (like algorithms and notifications), not on usergenerated content.
• The experts’ conclusions were backed by peerreviewed studies and even the companies’ own internal documents.

The Bigger Picture: Social Media and Youth Mental Health

Families across the country have raised concerns about how addictive design features—such as endless scrolling, push notifications, and algorithmdriven feeds—are harming young people’s mental health. Research has linked heavy social media use to:

• Higher rates of anxiety and depression
• Greater risk of sleep problems
• Addictive behaviors similar to substance abuse
• Lower selfesteem and negative body image

This ruling means juries will now hear from top experts about these dangers and how the design of social media platforms may be contributing to the youth mental health crisis.

What’s Next

The first personal injury trial in the social media addiction lawsuits is scheduled for November 2025. This will be the first time a jury hears evidence about how social media companies built their platforms to keep users hooked — putting profit ahead of the safety and wellbeing of young people.

Beasley Allen is proud to be leading this fight. Our attorneys have decades of experience standing up to some of the world’s largest corporations in complex product liability and consumer protection cases — and winning.

This next stage of the litigation is a critical step toward holding tech companies accountable and protecting children and teens from the harmful effects of addictive social media design.