Major verdict in the United States: A jury finds that Instagram and YouTube were responsible for a teenage girl’s mental health problems. The decision could create a precedent and snowball all the way to Quebec. The Press takes stock with experts.
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Why is this an important decision?
Meta and Google were “negligent” in the design of their platforms and did not sufficiently warn of the risks they represent for minors, a jury determined after eight days of deliberations in California. Consequently, the American giants which respectively own Instagram and YouTube will have to pay at least $3 million in damages to the plaintiff, Kaley GM Now aged 20, she became a compulsive user of social networks at a very young age, which led her to have suicidal thoughts and anxiety problems. The ruling could push “thousands” of other users to turn to courts around the world, predicts law professor Daryl Lim of Pennsylvania State University. Following this judgment, technology giants could now favor amicable agreements. In another unprecedented ruling, Meta was found guilty of failing to adequately protect children from possible sexual predators in New Mexico. The company will have to pay 375 million.
Could this encourage social networks to review their practices?
It is very possible, since these companies want to avoid being condemned, according to the director of the Center for Research in Law, Technology and Society at the University of Ottawa, Florian Martin-Bariteau. “We’ve seen this in the past when it comes to advertising aimed at children. Instagram changed its practices following significant sanctions from regulators,” he says. The decision of the jurors in California puts the entire social media industry in jeopardy, said Eric Goldman, professor of law at Santa Clara University. Thousands of other people are suing the web giants around the world and billions of dollars are at stake, he raises. “The social media industry faces an existential legal liability and will inevitably have to reconfigure its core offerings if it fails to obtain broad relief,” he foresees.
Meta and YouTube, however, risk appealing, which could cause the case to take “years” to resolve, according to Eric Goldman. “From a legal standpoint, the jury clearly believed Kaley GM’s story regarding her addiction. This element will probably be one of the main issues on appeal,” he says. Jurors confessed that Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s inability to acknowledge the harm his platform inflicted on teens annoyed them. “He is the guru, so to speak, and he really should have known what he was going to tell us, to us jurors, before he even opened his mouth,” said one of the members of the jury to Agence France-Presse.
Could a similar decision be made in Quebec?
If such a trial took place in the province, Meta and YouTube would indeed risk losing it, believes Mr. Martin-Bariteau. “We could very well imagine a prosecution on the same bases in Quebec because there is a legal framework which is relatively protective of citizens,” he explains. Laws regarding social networks are stricter in Quebec than in the rest of Canada, he emphasizes, due to the Law concerning the legal framework for information technologies. “It is not a law that is widely used, but it is inspired by what is done in Europe. It can in particular allow victims to request that content be removed from social networks,” he indicates. In Ottawa, several bills affecting digital platforms died on the order paper during the last prorogation of Parliament.
Is the federal government’s legal framework too permissive?
“Totally,” says Florian Martin-Bariteau. This recent decision should be heard as a wake-up call in Ottawa, he thinks, and encourage the federal government to strengthen its legislative arsenal. “Experts and whistleblowers have been saying for years that there are significant problems in the design of social networks. Even if the legal framework is different, it is an important decision,” he insists. In Ontario, school boards have taken legal action against Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok for allegedly causing addiction in children. On the British Columbia side, the family of Maya Gebala, a 12-year-old student seriously injured in the Tumbler Ridge shootings, filed a civil lawsuit against OpenAI, whose ChatGPT conversational agent was used by the perpetrator of the shooting.
With Agence France-Presse
