A Florida teenager who blamed Meta’s social media platforms for his struggles with depression and anxiety has walked away from his lawsuit against the company — and he did so just days before the case was due to go to trial in Los Angeles.
Attorneys for the boy, a 15-year-old identified in court documents as R.K.C., announced Wednesday that their client had chosen to withdraw his remaining claims against Meta.
The lawsuit originally targeted four major social media companies: Google’s YouTube, Meta’s Instagram, Snap Inc.’s Snapchat, and ByteDance’s TikTok. However, YouTube and TikTok both reached confidential settlements with R.K.C. back in June. Bloomberg reported earlier this week that Snapchat had also reached a tentative settlement in the matter.
Court filings show that R.K.C. began using social media around the age of 8 and eventually became addicted to it, which he said led to sleep loss, depression, and anxiety.
His legal team explained the decision to drop the Meta claims in a statement: “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. He’s ready to close this chapter and focus on his recovery and engage in therapy as he aspires to have a normal life.”
Meta, however, was quick to point out that the teen received no money from the company as part of the withdrawal. A spokesperson for Meta released a statement saying, “The claims never held up, and this outcome makes clear that we will not back away from defending ourselves against baseless lawsuits.”
