Updated: Mar 27, 2026 – 26 episodes
Social media giants Meta and YouTube have faced significant legal setbacks, with juries finding them liable in two landmark court cases related to social media addiction. Podcasts are dissecting these verdicts, which focus not just on content but on the platforms' design and structure, and discussing the potential for a $400 million fine against Meta and Mark Zuckerberg, as well as the broader implications for Big Tech.
Morning Brew Daily paints a grim picture for social media companies, likening their future to Big Tobacco with potential massive lawsuits. Start with their episode to hear how they think these platforms might be forced to change their addictive designs. For a more balanced view, The Interface discusses the potential for significant changes in platform design and regulation while questioning user responsibility. TBPN offers a mixed perspective, noting the precedent-setting nature of the ruling but downplaying the financial impact compared to typical tech penalties. The Megyn Kelly Show delivers a bearish take, emphasizing the mental health impacts of social media's addictive features and the accountability of tech giants like Meta and YouTube.
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Podcast Episodes Covering This Story
“I realized that the plaintiff's attorneys were demonstrating how addictive and harmful Meta and YouTube were with documents, with experts, researchers, and Meta and YouTube were not disproving that they were addictive. They were attacking Kaylee and her family as being a bad family. It felt really disjointed, and it felt like they were unprepared, quite frankly. During the trial, Metta argued that it was Kaylee's difficult family life, not her social media use, that caused her mental health challenges.”
Ridealong summary
Meta and YouTube knowingly built addictive platforms and ignored internal research showing harm to children, prioritizing growth over safety.
“The ruling of the jury was that MEDA had not taken care to protect children from predators and held them liable. And they did it not on the basis of anything that was posted in terms of words. So it wasn't a First Amendment. It was based on how they developed the algorithm to use this. And the jury found that Meadow was liable for violating the state law and failing to safeguard children in using the app.”
Ridealong summary
Meta and YouTube's algorithms are intentionally designed to be addictive, leading to significant legal liabilities for user safety failures.
“It's possible that we could get some kind of federal legislation that provides some kind of security or safe harbor for the defendants. The reality is today that states throughout the country are passing laws that govern the same issues that are at issue in the litigation. and so unless there's some federal preventive laws, the defendants the social media services are going to have to navigate this ever-growing stack of state legislation.”
Ridealong summary
The ruling on social media addiction lawsuits could lead to federal legislation providing safe harbor for companies, but state laws currently create a complex legal landscape.
“The plaintiff's lawyer is kind of going for the jugular. At one point in the courtroom, Mark Lanier, who is the lawyer who represented Kaylee, held up a jar of M&Ms saying each piece of candy represented a billion dollars of the company's value. And then he took off one bit of the shell of a single blue M&M and said, this is $200 million. They do not want to feel the pain for what they did.”
Ridealong summary
Social media companies may face a future similar to Big Tobacco, with massive lawsuits forcing them to change their addictive product designs or face significant financial settlements.
“Switching gears, I want to talk about over the past couple of weeks, there's been this trial going on in California. Social media is on trial. You've heard this one before, but this case is different and I think really dramatic. So the argument that is playing out here is whether or not social media apps are addictive and whether the companies are making them addictive on purpose.”
Ridealong summary
The ruling against social media companies for addiction could lead to significant changes in how these platforms are designed and regulated, but it also raises questions about user responsibility and the role of personal choice.
“"A jury ordered the company to pay million each in compensatory damages and million in punitive damages... A now 20-year-old woman named Kaylee... testified that social media use... contributed to mental health issues, including anxiety, depression, and body dysmorphia. Very unfortunate for her, of course. In a statement, Metta said it disagrees with the verdict... reducing something as complex as teen mental health to a single-cause risk, risks leaving the many broader issues teens face today unaddressed."”
Ridealong summary
The legal challenges against Meta and Google highlight the complexity of attributing teen mental health issues solely to social media use, as broader societal factors also play a significant role.
“This was the case brought by the state attorney general in New Mexico. They found Meta liable for violating state law by failing to safeguard users of its apps from child predators. And that fine was $375 million, a little bit more painful for Meta. This is the first of the official bellwether cases that can decide the fate of all this future litigation.”
Ridealong summary
The recent court rulings against Meta and YouTube mark a significant victory for the movement advocating for accountability in social media addiction cases, potentially opening the floodgates for future litigation.
“"Today, a major verdict came out in the big social media addiction trial in LA. And there was also a big verdict in a trial against these social media platforms that happened in New Mexico this week. And I want to talk about both of these trials and what these verdicts mean, because the mainstream media is flat out lying about it. This is some of the worst coverage I've ever seen. It's horrible. It's delusional. It's dangerous."”
Ridealong summary
The mainstream media's coverage of the social media addiction trials is misleading and fails to capture the complexity and implications of the rulings.
“A lot of people are comparing this judgment to what happened with tobacco, which was where they were found liable for causing people cancer, which they did. And that they knew about it, and then they were still putting their products after they knew of the harms. This might be a turning point moment. And especially if this judgment holds up, it opens enormous floodgates to other lawsuits.”
Ridealong summary
The legal rulings against social media firms could be a turning point, akin to the tobacco industry’s reckoning, potentially leading to significant changes in platform operations.
“"The actual solution here is not gigantic lawsuits. It's not. The actual solution is. Yes, governmental legislation banning social media for kids under 18, period. That is the thing we should be doing. It's what lots of countries are doing right now, and they are correct to do it. Users should have to register as over 18. Companies that don't do it should be held legally accountable."”
Ridealong summary
Governmental legislation banning social media for kids under 18 is the real solution, not lawsuits against social media companies.
“This is the first time a jury has ever ruled that social media platforms can cause personal injury through their product design. And the legal playbook that they use was the same used against big tobacco. They're saying that these companies designed features they knew were addictive and harmful, especially to kids. So Meta could potentially face a huge legal liability.”
Ridealong summary
The legal rulings against Meta and YouTube mark a pivotal moment, potentially leading to massive liabilities and fundamental changes in social media platform design.
“So yesterday a Los Angeles jury both Meta and YouTube liable for a 20 year old woman mental health crisis in a bellwether trial that treated platforms as quote defective products and potentially marks the end to the absolute immunity nature of Section 230... The jury found that specific features of Meta and YouTube are designed to be addictive. Infinite scroll creates an environment where there are no natural stopping points.”
Ridealong summary
The ruling against Meta and YouTube is precedent-setting but doesn't immediately impact their cash flow, highlighting the complexity of regulating addictive design features.
“A young woman sued the companies claiming that features like infinite scroll and algorithmic recommendations were designed to be addictive and caused her mental health harm. The jury agreed and Meta has to pay about $4.2 million in damages and YouTube has to pay $1.8 million. Now those dollar amounts are pocket change for these tech companies... It's about the precedent that's being set.”
Ridealong summary
The legal setbacks for Meta and Google in social media addiction cases could open the floodgates for more lawsuits and regulatory actions against tech giants.
“If you are Meta and you are a company that makes a profit of billion a year and has a market value of I don even know what that you bear no social responsibility... So if they're responsible for their behavior, the first order of business would be like, leave the kids out of it somehow. But when you realize that plastic young brains are really easy to influence... you might say, you know what we're not going down that road.”
Ridealong summary
Social media companies must take responsibility for their addictive designs, especially when targeting young users, rather than deflecting blame onto parents.
“A lot of the internal documents that were submitted as evidence from, like, memos and emails that Facebook folks had sent to each other within the company as well as some public statements, a lot of them made the case that Facebook was indeed designing its products to maximize engagement. Even when people on the team pushed back in some cases, the directives from up top were to keep pushing to maximize engagement, get children to be using it more and more.”
Ridealong summary
Social media companies like Meta intentionally designed their platforms to be addictive, similar to tactics used by casinos, and hid the resulting harm from the public.
“A pair of verdicts this week delivering a clear message to big tech. Social media companies can be held liable for harm caused by their products. In Los Angeles, Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram and YouTube, found liable for harming the plaintiff, a now 20-year-old woman identified as KGM. KGM's legal team arguing features like infinite scrolling, constant notifications, and auto-playing videos are engineered to keep kids on social media, driving compulsive use linked to depression, anxiety, eating disorders, self-harm, and suicide.”
Ridealong summary
The ruling against social media giants like Meta and YouTube is a significant step towards holding these companies accountable for the mental health impacts of their addictive features.
“"When you reframe this and you say, actually, social media is a pollutant. It's like some company manufacturing cigarettes or asbestos or lead. Or when you reframe it that way, it's what you said, is this is a pollutant driving society, that it is making society depressed, anxious, lose focus, having all sorts of negative psychological and physiological implications."”
Ridealong summary
Social media platforms are likened to pollutants, causing societal harm and requiring accountability similar to companies that produce harmful substances like cigarettes or lead.
“"The addiction rhetoric bothers me to some extent. I think it's an easy thing to say. It's not really supported by the data... most people had no signs of actual addiction... Yet people self-reported addiction much higher... the narrative around addiction was leading to more people thinking they were addicted when they weren't and not taking control over their own habits."”
Ridealong summary
The addiction rhetoric around social media is misleading and unsupported by data, leading people to falsely believe they are addicted and relinquish personal responsibility.
“What this jury has decided is that it is the design choices of the company that is what's wrong here. They have found here, Katie, not that the content is the problem, not even that their own algorithm is the problem... Those functions are what the problem is here. And that is an existential risk for these companies. It is the essence of what makes them such an effective business in terms of their marshalling and studying and even in some cases shaping behavior.”
Ridealong summary
The ruling against social media companies marks the end of social media as we know it and poses an existential threat to their business models.
“I celebrate this verdict because these companies are too powerful and they've done sketchy things and they've harmed conservatives and the American right and they need to be regulated. Even though I work with these companies, but sometimes these companies have tried to destroy our business... I'm a little skeptical of it... this will certainly be appealed. But the problem is that the tech companies made their products too attractive.”
Ridealong summary
The verdict against social media companies is a necessary step towards regulation, but skepticism remains about the jury's decision and the nature of addiction claims.
