By Jorge Casuso
February 11, 2026 -- Snap Inc, one of Santa Monica's largest employers, became the first major social media platform to settle a landmark lawsuit claiming the companies deliberately addict children.
The settlement agreement was announced by attorneys representing the plaintiff and defendant during the final status conference January 20 in California Superior Court, days before the lawsuit was scheduled to go to trial.
The following week, TikTok followed suit, leaving Instagram parent Meta and Alphabet's YouTube to fight a lawsuit expected to expose internal conversations and findings that could prove embarrassing to the mega companies, according to media reports.
The trial is intended to test whether social media platforms can be treated as inherently defective products subject to personal injury liability.
"Lawsuits filed by teenagers, parents, school districts, and several state attorneys general draw an explicit parallel to earlier campaigns against tobacco companies," according to TechSpot, a website for tech enthusiasts.
The case -- which centers on a 19-year-old woman identified as “KGM” -- is one of three selected for bellwether trials that provide both sides with an indication of the merits of the cases.
According to AP, the case "could determine how thousands of other, similar lawsuits against social media companies will play out."
The non-profit news site CalMatters reported that the lawsuit, as well as another filed in LA Superior Court, "are exposing embarrassing internal conversations and findings at the companies, particularly Facebook and Instagram owner Meta, further tarnishing their brands in the public eye.
"They are also testing a particular vector of attack against the platforms, one that targets not so much alarming content as design and marketing decisions that accelerated harms," CalMatters wrote.
The recent settlement marks the end of one of a number of lawsuits filed across the country against Snap Inc. that have been consolidated in court ("Unredacted Portions of Snapchat Lawsuit Made Public," August 4, 2025).
The lawsuits filed by the families of 63 fentanyl victims between the ages of 14 and 22, all but two of whom died, allege that the company's Snapchat platform has a "unique" design that "connects predatory drug dealers with vulnerable teenagers who are not seeking to purchase drugs," according to claims filed by the Social Media Victims Law Center
According to the BBC, media companies "have argued that Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 protects them from liability for what third parties post on their platforms."
Plaintiffs argue that "the platforms are designed in a way that leaves users addicted through choices that affect their algorithms and notifications."
Snap, Inc. has rapidly become Santa Monica's sixth largest employer, with its workforce of 1,575 employees, making it a driving force behind the rise of the City as a tech hub.