Google tells jurors plaintiff not addicted to YouTube in bellwether trial

Counsel for Google told jurors in the first bellwether minors' social media addiction trial Tuesday that the plaintiff is not addicted to YouTube and that the platform may not even qualify as social media.

"I'm not sure YouTube is social media ... but it's not an addiction," Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati partner Luis Li said. The comments were made on the second day of opening statements in the high-profile case before Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Carolyn B. Kuhl.

The case centers on a novel theory that social media platforms, in this instance Instagram and YouTube, are inherently defective products subject to personal liability.

Despite claims that a YouTube addiction substantially worsened the plaintiff's mental health struggles and disrupted her development when she was a minor, Li argued the company's evidence will show the platform functions more like traditional on-demand entertainment apps, where viewing time is driven by user choice rather than a compulsive social feedback loop.

He also said YouTube's records show the plaintiff - now an adult identified as Kaley - averaged relatively little time watching videos on the platform, which he argued did not amount to an addiction.

"Ms. Kaley GM ... is not addicted to YouTube. You don't have to take my word for it. You can listen to her own words," Li said. "She says so. Her doctor says so. Her dad says so."

Li then pointed jurors to what he described as voluminous medical records - three boxes totaling "about 10,000 pages" - that he said contain no mention of YouTube addiction or treatment for it.

Instead, Li said, jurors would see "only one reference to YouTube," in which a report noted Kaley "shared she's been using a YouTube video to help sleep when feeling anxious."

"One report, 10,000 pages," Li told the panel.

Kaley's case is one of thousands in a coordinated proceeding before Kuhl involving similar claims of harm to minors by Meta Platforms, Google, TikTok and Snapchat. Days before jury selection began late last month, TikTok and Snapchat settled Kaley's claims on undisclosed terms, while remaining as defendants in the other lawsuits.

Kaley, represented by Lanier Law Firm founder Mark Lanier, filed the action when she was a teenager. Social Media Cases, JCCP5255 (L.A. Super. Ct., filed Oct. 24, 2022).

In opening statements Monday, Lanier told jurors the evidence will show Meta and Google deliberately designed their platforms as "addiction machines" and "digital casinos" that targeted children's developing brains and caused lasting harm.

Covington & Burling LLP partner Paul W. Schmidt, for Meta, countered that Kaley's mental health struggles stemmed from a troubled home environment and predated her use of social media, arguing the platforms were not a substantial factor in her medical problems.

In her lawsuit, Kaley alleged that heavy use of Instagram and YouTube when she was a minor, starting at age 6, substantially disrupted her emotional development and contributed to anxiety, depression and thoughts of suicide.

The start of Tuesday's proceeding was delayed about 30 minutes due to some jurors arriving late because of traffic and long lines at the Spring Street Courthouse entrance.

In the downtime, the attorneys and judge discussed logistics for Instagram head Adam Mosseri's expected testimony on Wednesday, including plans to complete plaintiff's examination by the lunch hour so Meta could begin questioning him afterward.

"We'll take it how it goes," Kuhl said. "Hopefully the jury will not be late tomorrow."

When jurors were seated, Li began his presentation and disputed the plaintiff's portrayal of YouTube's design features as inherently addictive.

"What you're going to learn is infinite scroll is not infinite," Li said, pointing to usage data he claimed showed Kaley's five-year average watch time was 29 minutes per day.

He also focused on autoplay and YouTube Shorts, arguing the numbers were far from the "rollercoaster" and "tortilla chips" analogies Lanier used to describe compulsive engagement.

During his opening, Lanier compared features like autoplay and infinite scroll to a never-ending rollercoaster ride and to "chips at a Mexican restaurant" that keep coming before a user can decide to stop.

Kaley's average autoplay time, Li said, was 4 minutes and 9 seconds. He claimed her average watch history for YouTube Shorts was 1 minute and 14 seconds.

"You can't really boil an egg in 4 minutes and 9 seconds ... unless you like it really runny," Li told the panel. "That's what counsel is saying is the endless rollercoaster ... the thing you cannot get off of."

Li suggested the framing of the case was not driven by addiction but by litigation choices, noting Kaley initially did not assert claims against YouTube in early plaintiff fact sheets.

Evidence presentation began with expert testimony from a Stanford psychiatrist, Dr. Anna Lembke, who offered jurors a clinical framework for addiction. She said she was not asked to offer an opinion on Kaley herself.

"Addiction is the continued, compulsive use of a substance or a behavior despite harm to self and others," Lembke testified, explaining that compulsive social media addiction is a form of behavioral addiction.

She described what she called the "4 Cs" used to diagnose addiction: control, cravings, compulsion and consequences.

Lembke told jurors adolescence is a particularly vulnerable period because the brain's prefrontal cortex, which she compared to brakes on a car, is not fully developed until around age 25.

According to the attorneys, Kaley just turned 20.

"What's distinct about teenagers ... is that the prefrontal cortex, the brakes of the car, is still not complete," Lembke testified, explaining there is less communication between the brain's "brakes and accelerator" at this age, which makes adolescents more vulnerable to risk-taking and addiction.