Have social media companies put profit before safety?
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Xu Yuan
March 25, 2026
A state court jury in California found Meta Platforms and YouTube are liable for causing the mental health problems suffered by the 20-year-old plaintiff in a lawsuit alleging social media’s role in the deterioration of mental health of young people and must pay a total of $6 million in damages.
Madeline Hughes and Mike Swift
March 25, 2026
While the $375 million penalty a New Mexico jury handed to Meta Platforms was less than 20 percent of had been sought by the New Mexico attorney general, the jury's quick and decisive verdict, could signal trouble for Meta and other social media platforms. Read more
Maria Dinzeo, Madeline Hughes and Mike Swift
March 24, 2026
Meta Platforms violated a New Mexico consumer protection law and should pay a $375 million fine, a jury said Tuesday in handing down the first of what is likely to be many verdicts in courts across the US about the alleged harmful design of social media platforms. Read more
Xu Yuan
March 11, 2026
The jury in the ongoing trial in Los Angeles over social media addiction must consider if the plaintiff who sued Meta Platforms and YouTube, exaggerated mistreatment and is embellishing the harms she suffered from the apps? Read more
Maria Dinzeo
March 10, 2026
Halfway through the first bellwether trial over whether Meta and YouTube deliberately designed their services to hook children, Meta appears particularly vulnerable to a jury finding that Instagram contributed to the mental-health struggles of a 20-year-old woman who says she became addicted to the platform as a child.
Maria Dinzeo and Mike Swift
March 10, 2026
Testimony from New Mexico educators about the disruptive effects of social media in schools is offering an early look at the evidence a Kentucky school district hopes to present in a closely watched federal trial against Meta Platforms, TikTok, Snap and YouTube, and that the companies are fighting to keep from jurors. Read more
Madeline Hughes
March 4, 2026
A New Mexico jury has heard only from current Meta Platform executives through taped depositions, as the state is expected to rest its case. Read more
Madeline Hughes, Maria Dinzeo, Mike Swift and Xu Yuan
February 27, 2026
Is the culture of “move fast and break things” from Meta Platforms' early days now an extinct relic? Or, does that disregard for users still lie at the heart of an aggressive and reckless culture at Meta a decade and a half later? Read more
Xu Yuan
February 26, 2026
Internal debate at Meta Platforms over whether to implement higher levels of privacy protections highlighted the long-existing tension between privacy and online safety, particularly over the protection of children from malicious actors.
Mike Swift
February 25, 2026
An Illinois federal judge's decision that the state's biometric privacy law applies to Meta’s capture of facial geometries to create facial filters shows there could be privacy exposure for companies from using such filters. Read more
Maria Dinzeo
February 21, 2026
Internal Meta documents have offered a rare inside look at the company’s strategy around capturing the youth market. Read more
Mike Swift
February 18, 2026
Grieving parents sitting just feet away from the jury In the addictive design trial against Meta Platforms and YouTube have given the trial a more emotionally charged dynamic than many disputes involving the tech industry. Read more
Madeline Hughes
February 18, 2026
Former Meta Platforms executives taking the stand in the lawsuit against the company shared hope that social media could connect people and be a tool for good rather than harm. Read more
Mike Swift and Madeline Hughes
February 13, 2026
The judges in the trials against Meta Platforms and You Tube in New Mexico and Los Angeles must navigate how Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act limits evidence about social media content. Read more
Madeline Hughes
February 11, 2026
An older jury in New Mexico's landmark trial against Meta Platforms is getting a crash course in how social media works, along with internet language, as the trial in the state's consumer protection lawsuit against Meta gets underway. Read more
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