TikTok resolves its second addiction lawsuit, leaving Meta and Snap to stand trial by themselves.

      TikTok has settled with a Florida teen who claimed the platform negatively impacted his mental health, thereby bowing out of a jury trial set to begin on July 27 in Los Angeles. This confidential settlement, reported by Bloomberg, makes TikTok the second defendant to withdraw from the case recently, following YouTube's settlement with the same plaintiff last week. The 15-year-old, referred to by his initials in court documents, alleges that Meta, YouTube, TikTok, and Snap designed their platforms to be addictive through features like infinite scrolling and autoplay. He has reportedly been using social media since he was eight and has been diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder and major depressive disorder, which he attributes to his social media use. He began therapy for these conditions, including suicidal thoughts, in 2023.

      With TikTok and YouTube now out of the picture, Meta and Snap remain as the only defendants facing the jury. Snap CEO Evan Spiegel, who had previously been removed from the witness list after Snap settled another case, may testify in this trial. Judge Carolyn Kuhl, who oversaw the first bellwether trial, will preside over this one as well.

      TikTok's recent settlement continues a trend, as the company also settled the first bellwether case earlier this year, alongside Snap. That case concluded with a jury finding Meta and Google liable, awarding six million dollars in damages—the first verdict in a social media addiction case.

      These platforms are contending with numerous similar lawsuits, with over 10,000 individual cases and nearly 800 claims from school districts currently pending in federal multidistrict litigation. The bellwether approach is used because trying each case individually would be highly time-consuming, with early verdicts influencing the valuation of subsequent cases.

      The attorneys for the plaintiff mentioned that the upcoming trial will provide a different viewpoint compared to the first one, which involved a young woman. “The impacts on a male and on somebody who’s a minor currently involve different circumstances for the jury to evaluate,” said attorney Rahul Ravipudi to NBC News. Their legal team plans to call some of the same key witnesses who appeared in the previous trial, where both Mark Zuckerberg and Instagram head Adam Mosseri testified.

      The litigation path involving school districts has followed a similar trajectory. Snap, YouTube, and TikTok settled a school bellwether case before it went to trial, and Meta later settled the Kentucky case that would have marked the first school-district trial focusing on youth mental health. Companies that settle do not disclose details, while those proceeding to trial risk obtaining a verdict that serves as a reference for the remaining claims.

      Meta is now approaching its second consecutive trial as a company that has largely resisted settling. The trial on July 27 in Los Angeles will determine whether a second jury arrives at a similar conclusion as the first and whether two verdicts will create enough pressure to alter the strategies for the thousands of outstanding cases.