José Castañeda, a spokesperson for YouTube parent company Google, said the platform plans to appeal the ruling. “This case misunderstands YouTube, which is a responsibly built streaming platform, not a social media site,” he said in a statement.
For decades, platforms have been shielded by federal liability protections enacted during the internet’s early days. But after Wednesday’s verdict, tech giants suddenly appear vulnerable in hundreds of similar lawsuits that could incur further damages or force product redesigns.
The Los Angeles trial is a bellwether for hundreds similar cases brought by more than 1,600 plaintiffs, ranging from California school districts that blame platforms for rampant student mental health issues to families who accuse social media platforms of harming their kids.
Social media companies Snap and TikTok, which settled in the K.G.M. lawsuit days before it went to trial, are named alongside Meta and YouTube as defendants in the remaining cases, some of which are expected to go to trial later this year.
At the federal level, more than 235 plaintiffs are suing Meta, Snap, TikTok and Google on similar grounds. Trials in the federal proceeding are slated to begin as soon as this June.
“It should be a wake up call for everyone,” New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez told POLITICO in an interview referring to the back-to-back verdicts this week. “It’s time to change the way these companies do business.”
A Meta spokesperson said the company disagrees with the New Mexico verdict and will appeal the ruling.