By Diana Novak Jones
July 22 (Reuters) – A Florida teen whose lawsuit claimed Meta’s platforms were to blame for his depression and anxiety dropped his case against the company just days before the trial in Los Angeles was set to start, his attorneys said on Wednesday.
The lawsuit, brought by a 15-year-old boy known as R.K.C., originally named four defendants, Google’s YouTube, Meta’s Instagram, Snap Inc’s Snapchat and ByteDance’s TikTok, but YouTube and TikTok settled in June. The terms of those settlements were confidential.
Bloomberg reported on Monday that Snap had reached a tentative settlement in the case.
R.K.C., who started using social media when he was about 8, said he became addicted to it, losing sleep and suffering from depression and anxiety, according to court filings.
“In light of the overall successful result of the litigation and his concerns about enduring a grueling weeks-long trial, he has elected to withdraw his claims against Meta,” attorneys for R.K.C. said in a statement. “He’s ready to close this chapter and focus on his recovery and engage in therapy as he aspires to have a normal life.”
A spokesperson for Meta said in a statement R.K.C. had dropped the claims without receiving any payment.
“The claims never held up, and this outcome makes clear that we will not back away from defending ourselves against baseless lawsuits,” the company said.
(Reporting by Diana Novak Jones; Editing by Chris Reese, Alexia Garamfalvi and Chizu Nomiyama)
