YouTube argues it isn’t social media in landmark tech addiction trial

YouTube argued on Tuesday that it was not social media and was not addictive, on the second day of opening statements in a landmark social media addiction trial.

YouTube, its lawyers said, is an entertainment platform more like Netflix than a social network like Facebook. People use the video streaming app to learn how to cook, knit and become pop stars, not endlessly scroll, they added.

“It’s not trying to get in your brain and rewire it,” Luis Li, YouTube’s lawyer, said of the app’s video recommendation algorithm. “It’s just asking you what you like to watch.”