Snap Inc., the parent company of Snapchat has reached a settlement in a lawsuit accusing the platform of contributing to social media addiction and related mental health issues.
On Tuesday, the settlement was announced in a California Superior Court in Los Angeles, days ahead of the case was reportedly scheduled for a trial.
The lawsuit was filed by a 19-year-old plaintiff, identified in court documents as K.G.M., who claimed that Snapchat’s design features and algorithms encouraged addictive behaviour and caused serious mental illness.
However, further details of the settlement remained undisclosed.
The case is part of a wider wave of lawsuits targeting some leading social media platforms, including YouTube, Meta, TikTok, and more that are yet to be proceeded.
Court documents announced that several Snap employees had raised concerns regarding the platform’s impact on teen mental health as early as nine years ago.
Snap has refused wrongdoing, stating these claims were taken out of context.
Plaintiffs argued that some features such as Infinite scrolling, algorithm-based recommendations keep users hooked, and autoplay videos, compared to past lawsuits against tobacco companies.
Snap CEO Evan Spiegel had been slated to experiment, which would have marked the first jury trial of its kind against a social media firm.
