Two US juries held Meta liable for hundreds of millions of dollars in damages for harming minors. One verdict came from New Mexico, one from Los Angeles. YouTube was also found liable in the Los Angeles case. Both companies are appealing.
The verdicts are legally significant because Meta and Google normally operate behind the dual shield of Section 230 and the First Amendment. Plaintiffs found a way through. How they did it, and which specific legal arguments the juries accepted, is the detail that makes this story worth reading in full.
The outcome splits into two possible futures: stronger accountability for platforms that profit from addictive design targeting children, or a precedent that erodes speech protections across the board. The line between those two futures runs through the reasoning in these verdicts.
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