HENDERSON, Ky. (WEHT) – Wadesville mother Joann Bogard is in Los Angeles advocating for her 15-year-old son Mason, who died in 2019 after attempting a social media “pass out challenge”. She joins several other grieving parents who are attending the trial against tech giants Meta, parent company of Facebook and Instagram, and YouYube, operated by Google. Bogard was in the courtroom on February 19, as well as February 20, hearing firsthand from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
“Hearing testimony from Zuckerberg, it was just typical, it wasn’t surprising,” says Bogard. “There were a lot of lies, a lot of skipping around questions, things like that.”
A California social media user is suing Meta and YouTube for addictive practices, claiming their platforms affected their mental health. Snapchat and TikTok both reached settlements before the trial began. Bogard says this cases will have implications on thousands of other cases pending against social media companies.
Mark Zuckerberg quizzed on kids’ Instagram use in social media trial
“It just revealed, pulled back the curtain on this, that just like Big Tobacco, these platforms are addicting kids purposefully at a young age,” explains Bogard…