Social media companies to pay $27 million to settle Kentucky school district’s lawsuit, records show
The operator of Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp settled the case brought by Breathitt County School District on May 21, a few weeks before a planned June trial, following settlements by co-defendants Snap Inc, YouTube parent Alphabet and TikTok parent ByteDance.
The settlements did not require the companies to admit liability and include no agreements to make changes to the social media platforms.
The companies have denied the allegations and say they take extensive steps to keep teens and young users safe on their platforms.
YouTube agreed to pay $2.01 million to settle the case, and Snap and TikTok agreed to pay $8 million each, according to copies of the settlements obtained by Reuters from the school district via a public records request. YouTube also agreed to provide the district with special training on Google Classroom and other products.
Representatives for Meta, YouTube and Snapchat said in separate statements that the companies had resolved the case amicably and continue to focus on tools and features meant to keep users safe on their platforms.
Representatives for TikTok did not respond to a request for comment.
Attorneys for the plaintiffs also did not respond to a request for comment. They have previously said that their focus is now on pursuing similar claims brought by 1,200 other school districts.
BIGGER SCHOOL DISTRICTS ALSO SUING
The Breathitt school district, which is in a rural county in Appalachia, accused the companies of designing their platforms to keep young users hooked, driving anxiety, depression and self-harm among students and leaving schools to deal with the consequences.
The school district was seeking over $60 million to cover the costs of counteracting social media’s impact on students’ mental health and to fund a 15-year mental health program to mitigate the problem. It had also asked for a court order requiring the companies to modify their platforms to reduce addictive features.
Breathitt’s case was slated to be the first among the school districts’ cases, which have been consolidated in federal court in California, to go to trial. Judges and attorneys often use bellwether verdicts to assess the potential value of remaining claims and guide settlement talks.