As landmark lawsuits and regulators moved against addictive interfaces this week, governments began treating endless scrolling as an engineered risk rather than a personal weakness.
Opening statements began in Los Angeles County Superior Court on Monday in the first social media addiction trial to go before a jury, with Meta’s Instagram and Google’s YouTube facing claims that they deliberately designed their platforms to harm children. TikTok and Snap, which were originally named in the lawsuit, settled for undisclosed sums before the trial began.
The case centres on Kaley, now 20, who says her use of Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok from age 10 led to depression, anxiety, body dysmorphia, and suicidal thoughts. More than 1,600 plaintiffs, including over 350 families and 250 school districts, accuse the platforms of knowingly designing addictive products harmful to young users’ mental health. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Instagram head Adam Mosseri are expected to testify in a trial projected to last six to eight weeks.
Design on Trial
Plaintiffs’ lawyer Mark Lanier called Instagram and YouTube “digital casinos,” arguing the apps “borrow heavily from the behavioural and neurobiological techniques used by slot machines and exploited by the cigarette industry.”
The lawsuit states that defendants “deliberately embedded in their products an array of design features aimed at maximising youth engagement to drive advertising revenue.” If courts accept that addiction is partly designed, liability follows design decisions rather than user weakness. This represents a profound change in how digital harm is understood legally.
According to NPR, internal documents unsealed ahead of the trial include a 2016 email from Zuckerberg writing about Facebook’s live video feature for teens: “If we tell teens’ parents about their live videos, that will probably ruin the product from the start.” Meta and Google both deny the allegations. Meta said it is “confident the evidence will show our longstanding commitment to supporting young people.”
The outcome of Kaley’s case could determine how the remaining 2,325 consolidated lawsuits against social media companies are resolved.
Europe Acts on Addictive Architecture
The LA trial coincides with regulatory action in Europe.
On 6 February, the European Commission issued preliminary findings that TikTok’s design features breach the EU’s Digital Services Act. Regulators took issue specifically with infinite scroll, autoplay, push notifications, and personalised recommendation systems, arguing TikTok’s reward content system can “shift the brain of users into autopilot mode.”
The Commission concluded that TikTok must “change the basic design of its service,” including disabling infinite scroll, implementing real screen-time breaks, and overhauling its recommendation system.
TikTok faces fines of up to 6 per cent of its global annual turnover if found in breach. The company called the Commission’s findings “categorically false and entirely meritless” and pledged to challenge them. The broader regulatory pressure extends beyond TikTok. France recently approved a bill banning social media for children under 15, set to enter into force in September.
Australia has already revoked access to around 4.7 million accounts identified as belonging to children since introducing its under-16 ban.
From Individual Habit to Corporate Liability
For years, platform companies framed excessive use as a matter of individual responsibility.
Users were encouraged to manage their own screen time. Legal action is now challenging that narrative. The focus has shifted from behaviour to architecture, and from consumer weakness to producer liability. This mirrors earlier public health debates around tobacco, gambling, and alcohol, where responsibility shifted from consumers to producers, and warning labels, age limits, and advertising restrictions followed.
Much of the new regulation aims to restore friction. Proposed measures include default breaks, time warnings, restricted night-time access, and clearer exit points. These interventions interrupt the seamless flow that made platforms commercially attractive in the first place, challenging the industry’s core design philosophy that faster and smoother is always better. In this sense, regulation is trying to rebuild the pauses that technology deliberately removed.
Safety, Surveillance, and the Business Model
Protecting users increasingly requires collecting more data.
Age verification, identity checks, and behavioural monitoring expand platform oversight. Reducing manipulation can therefore mean increasing surveillance. Users are asked to accept deeper verification in exchange for safer environments. The balance is uneasy. Measures intended to protect can also normalise monitoring.
Addictive design is not a technical error. It is the foundation of platform economics. Advertising revenue depends on time spent. Valuations depend on engagement metrics. Investor confidence depends on growth curves. Endless scrolling maximises all three. This explains the industry’s cautious response: publicly, companies promise cooperation, whilst privately resisting changes that weaken revenue streams.
Economic incentives still favour intensity over moderation.
A Slower, More Deliberate Digital Life
The short-video format is unlikely to disappear.
It fits modern habits and mobile technology. What may be ending is the period in which platforms could pursue maximum engagement without legal consequence. Design is becoming a matter of liability. Attention is becoming regulated territory. The trial in Los Angeles, the European Commission’s findings, and new age-verification laws across multiple countries all point in the same direction.
Digital environments are no longer treated as private playgrounds. They are being recognised as public systems with public consequences. Online life could become more deliberate and less immersive. Whether users welcome that change, and whether platforms survive it commercially, remains to be seen.
Keep up with Daily Euro Times for more updates!
Read also:
Fairphone Enters the Office, Not the High Street
America First? TikTok Gives Control to Israeli Tech Company
Bury the Lead: MTV ‘Death’ and the Way We Read Now
