Juries
Jurors will remain anonymous in first social media addiction trial
A Los Angeles judge has prohibited social media companies from knowing the identities of jurors in first social media addiction trial. (Shutterstock image)
A Los Angeles judge has ordered social media companies be prohibited from knowing the identities of jurors in the first-ever trial accusing the platforms of addicting adolescent users.
According to Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Carolyn Kuhl, the jurors’ names would be revealed only to lawyers in the trial and not defendants Meta Platforms (Facebook), ByteDance (TikTok), Google (YouTube) and Snap Inc. (Snapchat). “Counsel cannot share the identity of jurors with their clients,” Kuhl wrote in a tentative order this week, according to reports in Law.com.
The Jan. 27 trial, which alleges media companies’ reliance on adolescent users and the link to mental health issues, is of “substantial media interest.” The defendants are represented by Sabrina Strong, of O’Melveny & Myers in Los Angeles, and Mike Imbroscio, of Covington & Burling in Washington, D.C., who questioned some of the language in Kuhl’s tentative order.
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