WASHINGTON (February 3, 2026) – A landmark social media addiction trial is underway in Los Angeles Superior Court, where a 19-year-old California woman alleges social media platforms contributed to her depression and suicidal ideation after addictive use beginning in her youth. TikTok and Snapchat have reached settlements, leaving Meta and Google’s YouTube among the remaining defendants. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is expected to testify as proceedings continue.
Mark Anne Franks, Eugene L. and Barbara A. Bernard Professor in Intellectual Property, Technology, and Civil Rights Law at the George Washington University Law School, is an expert on civil rights, free speech, and technology.
Vikram R. Bhargava, assistant professor of strategic management & public policy at the GW School of Business, researches the ethics and policy challenges created by emerging technologies. His work examines issues including technology addiction, social media dynamics, and AI governance, and has been published in leading business ethics journals.
David Broniatowski, professor of engineering management and systems engineering at GW, studies decision-making under risk, group behavior, and complex socio-technical systems. His research uses methods such as mathematical modeling, network analysis, and natural language processing to examine how information spreads and how people respond to risk in digital environments.
If you would like to speak with these experts to learn more about the case, please contact Claire Sabin at claire [dot] sabin
gwu [dot] edu (claire[dot]sabin[at]gwu[dot]edu).
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