Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta will avoid a social media addiction trial in California federal court after striking a settlement agreement with a Kentucky school district, a case seen as a bellwether as the tech giant faces an onslaught of litigation.
Breathitt County School District in Kentucky had accused Meta of fueling social media addiction among teenagers and fueling a public health crisis.
It was one of more than 1,200 school districts making similar claims against Meta as part of consolidated court proceedings in California.
Both sides declined to comment on the settlement’s financial terms. The trial had been scheduled to begin on June 15 in Oakland.
“Our focus remains on pursuing justice for the remaining 1,200 school districts who have filed cases,” plaintiffs’ attorneys Lexi Hazam, Previn Warren, Chris Seegar and Ronald Johnson said in a joint statement to The Post.
Meta was the last holdout in the case. Fellow defendants, including Alphabet-owned YouTube, Snap and TikTok, reached settlements last week.
Breathitt schools had sued for more than $60 million in damages and resources meant to help kids struggling with social media-related harm like anxiety and depression, as well as court orders that would block Meta from implementing addictive features on Facebook and Instagram.
“We’ve resolved this case amicably and remain focused on our longstanding work to build protections like Teen Accounts that help teens stay safe online, while giving parents simple controls to support their families,” Meta spokesperson Andy Stone said in a statement.
The Kentucky case was considered a crucial test of the legal arguments set to be deployed by school districts from around the country.
Meta still faces more than 2,400 pending lawsuits filed by schools, state attorneys general and individuals.
The next case, brought by the Tucson Unified School District in Arizona, is slated to be heard in January 2027.
As The Post reported, Meta argued in pre-trial filings in the Kentucky case that Zuckerberg should only have to testify in person one time, with all other plaintiffs in the upcoming cases relying on a videotaped record of his testimony.
Warren and other plaintiffs’ attorneys have been pushing for Zuckerberg to appear at each and every trial.
Meta’s decision to settle followed back-to-back losses in trials that made similar claims against the social media giant. In March, a Los Angeles state jury found Meta and Google liable for $6 million in damages to a woman referred to as KGM, who alleged that the apps fueled her descent into anxiety and depression.
In New Mexico, a jury slapped Meta with a $375 million penalty for failing to protect kids from sexual predators and other online harms.
The state is seeking major changes to Meta’s apps in a second trial phase, which is still underway and has prompted the company to threaten to pull out of New Mexico in response.
