LOS ANGELES - Arguments are set to begin in a landmark US trial that could establish a legal precedent on whether social media companies deliberately designed their platforms to lead to addiction in children.
The case in Los Angeles Superior Court is being seen as a bellwether proceeding because its outcome could set the tone for a tidal wave of similar litigation across the United States.
Defendants at the trial are Alphabet and Meta, the tech giants behind YouTube and Instagram.
Meta co-founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg, along with the bosses of Instagram and YouTube, are expected to be called as witnesses during the trial.
Social media firms are accused in hundreds of lawsuits of leading young users to become addicted to content that has led to depression, eating disorders, psychiatric hospitalisation, and even suicide.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs are borrowing strategies used in the 1990s and 2000s against the tobacco industry, which faced a similar onslaught of lawsuits arguing that companies sold a harmful product.
On Friday, lawyers for the defense unsuccessfully sought to bar plaintiffs from comparing their platforms to tobacco and other addictive products.
"This is the first time that a social media company has ever had to face a jury for harming kids," Social Media Victims Law Center founder Matthew Bergman, whose team is involved in more than 1,000 such cases, told AFP.
Internet titans have argued that they are shielded by Section 230 of the US Communications Decency Act, which frees them of responsibility for what social media users post.
However, this case argues that those firms are culpable for business models designed to hold people's attention and to promote content that can harm their mental health.
Jury selection in the Los Angeles case ended on Friday, with Meta dismissing several jurors over their strong opinions about either social media in general or Zuckerberg specifically.