Meta reaches landmark $18 billion settlement with states in trial over teen social media addiction; AP, August 26, 2026

  BARBARA ORTUTAY, KELVIN CHAN AND KAITLYN HUAMANI, AP; Meta reaches landmark $18 billion settlement with states in trial over teen social media addiction

"Meta agreed Wednesday to pay up to $18 billion and add stronger child-safety measures to its Facebook and Instagram platforms as part of a landmark legal settlement that ended a trial over teen social media addiction and settled claims filed by nearly every state.

The settlement resolved a pivotal case years in the making that sought to hold the tech giant accountable for the role its platforms played in undermining children’s mental health. The effort targeted features designed to hook young people’s attention."

Zuckerberg lied about concern for child safety, Meta whistleblower testifies at landmark trial; The Guardian, August 19, 2026

 Dara Kerr, The Guardian ; Zuckerberg lied about concern for child safety, Meta whistleblower testifies at landmark trial

"Meta has taken a “don’t ask, don’t tell” strategy when it comes to the safety of children on its social media platforms, according to a whistleblower who testified during a landmark trial against the company on Tuesday. He is slated to continue his testimony on Wednesday.

Arturo Béjar, a former Meta safety engineer, told the jury that the company was aware of the harm its products caused children, which included its recommendations pushing content from sexual predators and violent and graphic images. He said he repeatedly raised the issue to various Facebook and Instagram executives but that they did little to resolve it...

Béjar was the first witness called to the stand in the federal trial that started with opening statements on Tuesday. The case was brought against Meta by 29 US state attorneys general, who allege the social media company deliberately designed addictive products that lured in young people and led to them being harmed. The legal officials also claim Meta regularly collects data on children under the age of 13 without parental permission in violation of federal and state laws."

‘I always considered social media evil’: big tobacco whistleblower on tech’s addictive products; The Guardian, April 5, 2026

 Sanya Manor, The Guardian ; ‘I always considered social media evil’: big tobacco whistleblower on tech’s addictive products

"A key whistleblower in the tobacco industry’s landmark trials of the 1990s has been watching big tech’s recent court battles closely. Jeffrey Stephen Wigand, a biochemist who helped reveal how tobacco companies targeted children and hid just how addictive cigarettes were, has been struck with a feeling of familiarity. Last week’s verdict in a major social media trial that Meta and YouTube deliberately designed addictive products has only strengthened comparisons to the legal crackdown on big tobacco. Wigand sees it, too. His first thought, as he learned about the litigation in California, was that social media companies, through their advertisements, were trying to addict children – much like the tobacco industry did."

Meta’s court losses spell potential trouble for AI research, consumer safety; CNBC, March 29, 2026

 Jonathan Vanian , CNBC; Meta’s court losses spell potential trouble for AI research, consumer safety

"Over a decade ago, Meta then known as Facebook – hired social science researchers to analyze how the social network’s services were affecting users. It was a way for the company and its peers to show they were serious about understanding the benefits and potential risks of their innovations. 

But as Meta’s court losses this week illustrate, the researchers’ work can become a liability. Brian Boland, a former Facebook executive who testified in both trials — one in New Mexico and the other in Los Angeles — says the damning findings from Meta’s internal research and documents seemed to contradict the way the company portrayed itself publicly. Juries in the two trials determined that Meta inadequately policed its site, putting kids in harm’s way. 

Mark Zuckerberg’s company began clamping down on its research teams a few years ago after a Facebook researcher, Frances Haugen, became a prominent whistleblower. The newer crop of tech companies, like OpenAI and Anthropic, subsequently invested heavily in researchers and charged them with studying the impact of modern AI on users and publishing their findings. 

With AI now getting outsized attention for the harmful effects it’s having on some users, those companies must ask if it’s in their best interest to continue funding research or to suppress it."

The Terrible Cost of the Infinite Scroll; The New York Times, March 26, 2026

 Julia Angwin , The New York Times; The Terrible Cost of the Infinite Scroll

"It finally happened: Social media companies have been held accountable for the toxicity of their algorithmic grip.

In a first ruling of its kind, a California Superior Court jury found Wednesday that Meta and YouTube harmed a user through their addictive design choices.

The consequences for the industry could be significant. This case is only one of thousands set to be litigated across the country, and courts are seeking to consolidate them. This could wind up with a single significant settlement similar to the agreement that the four largest cigarette makers made in 1998 to resolve lawsuits for an estimated $206 billion as part of a master agreement with 46 states.

Compensating people for the harm caused by their products is just the silver lining. The real win would be if the social media giants were finally forced to design less harmful products."

Is Big Tech Facing a Big Tobacco Moment?; The New York Times, March 26, 2026

 Andrew Ross Sorkin, Bernhard Warner, Sarah Kessler, Michael J. de la Merced, Niko Gallogly,Brian O’Keefe and Ian Mount, The New York Times; Is Big Tech Facing a Big Tobacco Moment?

Back-to-back courtroom losses have put technology giants, including Meta and Google, in uncertain territory as they face lawsuits and bans on teen users.

"Andrew here. Back in 2018, I moderated a panel at the World Economic Forum that included Marc Benioff of Salesforce. It was then that he essentially declared that Facebook was the modern-day equivalent of cigarettes, and that it and other social media companies should be regulated as such.

Well, Meta’s loss in court on Wednesday, in a case about whether its platforms were designed to be addictive to adolescents, may be a watershed. Investors don’t seem to be fazed — the company’s shares hardly moved after the verdict came out — but the decision could change the conversation around the company yet again. More below...

Some legal experts wonder if Big Tech is staring at a Big Tobacco moment, a reference to how cigarette makers had to overhaul their businesses — at a huge expense — after courts ruled that some of their products were addictive and harmful.

“We’re in a new era, a digital era, where we have to rethink definitions for products based on which entities might have superior information to prevent these injuries and accidents,” Catherine Sharkey, a professor of law at N.Y.U., told The Times. She added that the “implications” of those verdicts were “very, very big.”

“This has potentially large impacts on other areas in tech, A.I. and beyond that,” Jessica Nall, a San Francisco lawyer who represents tech companies and executives, told The Wall Street Journal. “The floodgates are already open.”

Meta and Google plan to appeal. The companies have signaled that they will fight efforts to make them drastically redesign their products and algorithms."

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?"