Meta and YouTube Created ‘Digital Casinos,’ Lawyers Argue in Landmark Trial; The New York Times, February 9, 2026

 Eli Tan and Cecilia Kang, The New York Times ; Meta and YouTube Created ‘Digital Casinos,’ Lawyers Argue in Landmark Trial

"The trial in the California Superior Court of Los Angeles is the first in a series of landmark cases against Meta, Snap, TikTok and YouTube that test a novel legal theory arguing that tech can be as harmful as casinos and cigarettes.

Teenagers, school districts and states have filed thousands of lawsuits accusing the social media titans of designing platforms that encourage excessive use. Drawing inspiration from a legal playbook used against Big Tobacco last century, lawyers argue that features like infinite scroll, auto video play and algorithmic recommendations have led to compulsive social media use.

The cases pose some of the most significant legal threats to Meta, Snap, TikTok and YouTube, potentially opening them up to new liabilities for users’ well-being. A win for the plaintiffs could prompt more lawsuits and lead to monetary damages, as well as change how social media is designed."

Facebook runs the coward’s playbook to smear the whistleblower; The Verge, October 5, 2021

 Elizabeth Lopatto, The Verge; Facebook runs the coward’s playbook to smear the whistleblower

 

"Facebook has chosen to respond to whistleblower Frances Haugen in the most cowardly way possible: by hiding Mark Zuckerberg, the man ultimately responsible for Facebook’s decisions, and beginning the process of trying to smear and discredit Haugen.

This is some Big Tobacco bullshit — precisely what sleazeball PR guru John Scanlon was hired to do when Jeffrey Wigand blew the whistle on tobacco company Brown and Williamson. Scanlon’s task was to change “the story of B&W to a narrative about Wigand’s personality.”

Of course, that strategy “backfired completely,” Vanity Fair reported in 2004. It probably won’t work here, either. One senator, Edward Markey of Massachusetts, has already called Haugen “a 21st-century American hero,” adding that “our nation owes you a huge debt of gratitude.”...

But the funniest part is the absence of Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s CEO and the only shareholder with the power to replace himself. Zuckerberg started Facebook as a Hot-or-Not clone — which almost certainly would negatively affect teen girls’ self-esteem. (At least he is consistent, I guess.) The decisions Haugen alleges, which put profits ahead of morals, have also enriched him more than anyone else. The buck stops, quite literally, with him. So where is he?"