TikTok settled a lawsuit late on Jan. 26 that alleged social media companies designed their platforms to addict young users, ducking the first in what is expected to be a series of civil trials.
The settlement came as jury selection in the California Superior Court in Los Angeles had been scheduled to begin on Jan. 27.
Details of the settlement were not available at publication time.
The case had been viewed as a possible test case for other lawsuits against TikTok, YouTube, Meta, and Snap that are expected to go to court later this year.
Dan Greenberg, a senior legal fellow at the libertarian Cato Institute, said the new settlement is “very likely” to spawn more social media addiction litigation.
“This is why some defendants refuse to settle, because they know that settling invites copycat lawsuits,” he told The Epoch Times.
“If it’s a profitable investment to come up with creative theories that a product is inherently defective, then there are going to be lots of litigants who are willing to invest in a lawsuit,” Greenberg said.
In the case at hand, K.G.M., a 19-year-old woman from California, alleged that she has been addicted to social media for more than a decade, and that her use of the technology had contributed to suicidal thoughts, anxiety, depression, and body dysmorphia.
K.G.M. named TikTok, Meta, Snap, and YouTube as defendants in her lawsuit.
Snap settled with her out of court on Jan. 20.
The trial against the remaining defendants in the lawsuit—Meta and Google’s YouTube—is expected to continue.
K.G.M.’s lawsuit and related lawsuits that have been filed across the United States claim that Big Tech companies have been deliberately working to promote addictive use of the technology among the young.
“Borrowing heavily from the behavioral and neurobiological techniques used by slot machines and exploited by the cigarette industry, Defendants deliberately embedded in their products an array of design features aimed at maximizing youth engagement to drive advertising revenue,” K.G.M.’s lawsuit stated.
“Plaintiffs are not merely the collateral damage of Defendants’ products,” the lawsuit continued. “They are the direct victims of the intentional product design choices made by each Defendant. They are the intended targets of the harmful features that pushed them into self-destructive feedback loops.”
Some have compared the social media addiction lawsuits to the lawsuits filed against Big Tobacco that led to a landmark 1998 settlement that required cigarette makers to pay for billions of dollars in health care costs and restrict marketing of their products to minors.
More than 40 state attorneys general are separately suing Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, in federal and state courts, claiming Meta is contributing to a mental health crisis among young people by installing addictive features on its platforms.
Similar lawsuits are pending in more than a dozen states against TikTok.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is expected to testify at the trial of the lawsuit brought by K.G.M., which could take as many as eight weeks.
A Meta spokesperson said on Jan. 26 that the company strongly disagrees with the allegations in the lawsuit and is “confident the evidence will show our longstanding commitment to supporting young people.”
Meta has said it employs sophisticated technology, hires child safety experts, and works with other companies and law enforcement to identify predators online.
Google spokesman José Castañeda said the allegations made against YouTube are “simply not true.”
“Providing young people with a safer, healthier experience has always been core to our work,” he said.
The Epoch Times reached out to TikTok and K.G.M.’s attorneys for comment. No replies were received by publication time.
The Associated Press, Reuters, and Jacki Thrapp contributed to this report.
This article by Matthew Vadum appeared Jan. 27, 2026, in The Epoch Times. It was updated Jan. 28, 2026.