Three of the four original defendants in a Florida teen's social media addiction lawsuit paid settlements before a single juror was seated. R.K.C., a 15-year-old plaintiff identified only by initials in court filings, dropped his case against Meta on Wednesday, just days before the Los Angeles Superior Court trial was scheduled to open on July 27.
The case had started with four defendants: Meta's Instagram, Google's YouTube, Snap's Snapchat, and ByteDance's TikTok. YouTube and TikTok settled in June for confidential amounts. A person close to the proceedings said Snap had also resolved its exposure. Meta alone remained when R.K.C. chose to withdraw, and it wasted no time framing that as a victory.
A Meta spokeswoman said R.K.C. received no payment, and the company issued a pointed statement: 'The claims never held up, and this outcome makes clear that we will not back away from defending ourselves against baseless lawsuits.' R.K.C.'s attorneys pushed back with a different reading of events. They said the teen ended the fight 'in light of the overall successful result of the litigation' and his personal wish to focus on recovery and therapy rather than endure a weeks-long trial.
R.K.C. had begun using social media around age 8. His complaint alleged that infinite scroll and autoplay features drove compulsive behavior that caused anxiety, sleep deprivation, and depression. The case was one of a small group of bellwether suits selected to test how social media addiction claims hold up before juries, inside a broader wave of litigation from families across the country.
The more consequential date for Meta is August 18. That is when a state attorneys general trial is set to begin, one that could seek product-design changes and wider limits on how Instagram engages teenage users. Unlike a single plaintiff's withdrawal, an adverse outcome there would carry structural consequences for the platform.
