A California court has allowed key scientific evidence to be presented in lawsuits concerning social media addiction, marking a significant development for families pursuing legal action against major technology companies. In September 2025, the Superior Court of California in Los Angeles rejected most requests from Meta (which owns Facebook and Instagram), Snap Inc. (Snapchat), ByteDance (TikTok), and Google (YouTube) to exclude expert witnesses in the coordinated litigation known as JCCP 5255.
This decision enables plaintiffs, including minors and their families, to present expert testimony about how social media platform design may contribute to mental health issues among youth, such as addiction, anxiety, and depression.
The court’s 87-page ruling denied attempts by these companies to prevent testimony from experts in psychiatry, neuroscience, pediatrics, and media psychology. According to the judge’s decision:
"All but one of the plaintiffs’ experts will be allowed to testify at trial.
The experts used trusted scientific methods, such as longterm studies and reviews of existing research.
Section 230 protections did not apply because the experts are focusing on how the platforms are designed (like algorithms and notifications), not on usergenerated content.
The experts’ conclusions were backed by peerreviewed studies and even the companies’ own internal documents."
Families nationwide have expressed concern about features like endless scrolling, push notifications, and algorithm-driven feeds on social media platforms. Studies have associated frequent use with increased anxiety and depression among young people, sleep disturbances, addictive behaviors comparable to substance abuse, reduced self-esteem, and negative body image.
With this ruling, juries will now hear from leading specialists regarding these risks and how platform design could play a role in youth mental health challenges.
The first personal injury trial related to these lawsuits is set for November 2025. This will be the initial opportunity for a jury to consider evidence about whether social media companies intentionally engineered their platforms for user engagement at the expense of young people's safety.
Beasley Allen law firm is representing plaintiffs in this litigation. "Beasley Allen is proud to be leading this fight. Our attorneys have decades of experience standing up to some of the world’s largest corporations in complex product liability and consumer protection cases — and winning."
The upcoming phase of litigation aims to hold technology firms accountable for alleged harms caused by addictive social media designs affecting children and teenagers.