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MDL 3047 brings together lawsuits against Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok and Snapchat, alleging the platforms were designed to promote compulsive use by children and teens.
Rather than citing specific features, the plaintiffs describe a set of design decisions that work together to produce that effect.
Courts examining the case have identified four mechanisms as central to that theory: endless feeds and autoplay that remove natural stopping points, notifications that bring users back after they've left, recommendation algorithms that personalize what a user sees next, and variable rewards that make the next Like, comment, or notification unpredictable.
Infinite scroll continuously loads new content instead of presenting a defined endpoint. On a traditional page, reaching the bottom is itself a signal to stop, but an endless feed replaces that signal with an uninterrupted stream of content. Autoplay works alongside it, starting the next video automatically rather than waiting for the user to choose it.
Together, these features are alleged to strip away the natural pauses that would otherwise give a user a chance to decide whether to keep going. For a closer look at how this plays out across specific apps, see our platform-specific pages on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube.
Notifications work differently than scrolling and autoplay because they operate after someone has already left the platform. Common examples include alerts about:
Because a user can't predict when a notification will arrive or what it will contain, plaintiffs describe it as part of the same unpredictable-reward pattern that drives repeated checking throughout the platform.
Rather than displaying content in chronological order, these platforms use algorithms that study a user's clicks, watch time, and interactions to decide what to show next. Plaintiffs allege this creates a continuous loop, where the platform learns what holds a specific user's attention, serves more of it, and refines that prediction with every interaction.
This is one of the more legally contested features, since companies have argued that recommending content falls under Section 230 protections. Courts have addressed that argument differently depending on how a particular claim is framed.
The final mechanism is what the litigation calls intermittent variable reinforcement, a pattern the complaints compare to the mechanics behind slot machines. The outcome of checking a platform is never guaranteed, which is part of what plaintiffs allege keeps users coming back. Examples include:
Because the timing and size of the reward can't be anticipated, plaintiffs argue this feature encourages users to check back far more often than a predictable system would.
None of these four mechanisms are alleged to cause harm in isolation. An algorithm selects content it believes will hold attention, infinite scroll and autoplay deliver that content without friction, and notifications bring the user back once they've stopped, all while the reward itself stays impossible to predict.
Plaintiffs argue that no single feature needs to cause harm on its own for the combination to amount to a defective design, since each mechanism is alleged to reinforce the others and generate the behavioral data that keeps the cycle running.
If your child developed a diagnosed mental health condition tied to one of these design mechanisms, Atraxia Law can help determine whether your social media addiction claim may qualify. Our team reviews the platforms involved and the medical history behind your child's diagnosis, then connects qualifying families with an attorney handling claims in MDL 3047. Call Atraxia Law today to get your free case evaluation.