Law Professor Petitions Delhi High Court on Social Media Addictive Features
A public interest litigation (PIL) has been initiated in the Delhi High Court, spotlighting concerns over the addictive design elements of social media platforms and their detrimental effects on the mental health of young users. This case, titled Dr. Vikas Kathuria v. Union of India & Ors, is poised for a hearing by a bench comprising Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Tejas Karia on Wednesday.
The petitioner, Dr. Vikas Kathuria, a law educator at BML Munjal University, has also called for compensation from major platforms such as Meta, Google, Telegram, X, and Snapchat, for the mental health issues purportedly caused by their addictive features. He argues that these platforms are intentionally crafted to foster addiction among younger users, raising significant concerns about the prolonged use’s impact on mental well-being and development.
The plea highlights features like infinite scrolling, autoplay, algorithm-driven personalized feeds, and constant notifications. It claims that these elements are deliberately designed to captivate and maintain user attention, primarily to boost advertising revenues, all while disregarding potential adverse psychological and physiological impacts on the users.
Dr. Kathuria has requested the Central Government to form an expert committee tasked with evaluating these social media design features and offering solutions to mitigate the issues. Furthermore, he proposes the establishment of a mental health redressal fund to address the negative impact of such features on users’ mental health.
The petitioner seeks directives for the Union Government and relevant authorities to either restrict, regulate, or prohibit these design features. The PIL was filed with the representation of Advocates Kartika Sharma, Harsha Sadhwani, and Subhika Joshi.
