Overview

• The 327-page complaint in Manhattan federal court seeks damages and accuses the companies of gross negligence and creating a public nuisance.
• The plaintiffs are the City of New York, its school district and New York City Health + Hospitals, which cite rising costs tied to student mental health needs.
• The city’s filing alleges platforms were engineered to exploit youths’ psychology, pointing to survey data on heavy screen time and school absenteeism.
• The complaint links viral content to dangerous subway surfing, citing NYPD data of at least 16 teen deaths since 2023.
• New York City withdrew from prior California state litigation to join about 2,050 related cases in federal multidistrict proceedings, as Google publicly disputed the YouTube allegations.