After days of deliberation, a jury in a Los Angeles court on Wednesday said that Meta and YouTube were negligent in a landmark trial where a 20-year-old woman said that her use of social media in her teens addicted her to the platforms and made her depression worse.
Meta and YouTube were ordered to pay a combined $6 million in damages to the plaintiff, identified as K.G.M. Meta and YouTube said th...
The strongest version of this narrative frames the verdict as a long-overdue reckoning for Big Tech’s exploitative design practices, validating years of anecdotal and emerging research on social media’s harm to youth mental health. The comparison to Big Tobacco is compelling—both industries profited from addictive products while downplaying risks, and both faced legal consequences only after systemic harm became undeniable. The ruling also underscores a global pattern: platforms prioritize growt...