Social media on trial: tech giants face lawsuits over addiction, safety, and mental health – The Verge

Meta and YouTube found negligent in landmark social media addiction case

2026-03-25T16:26:38-04:00

The jury in a landmark trial testing claims about social media addiction against Meta's Instagram and Google's YouTube determined that the two companies failed to warn users about the risks of using their products. The jury found the companies' negligence was a substantial factor in harms like the mental health issues sustained by a now 20-year-old woman Kaley G.M., who used Instagram and YouTube.

The jury ordered both companies to pay a total of $3 million in compensatory damages, with Meta responsible for 70 percent of that balance, according to jurors' responses shared by a firm representing plaintiffs including Kaley. Jurors found that …

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Meta misled users about its products’ safety, jury decides

2026-03-24T17:54:29-04:00

Meta willfully violated New Mexico law by misleading users about the safety of its products and engaging in an unconscionable trade practice, a jury found. The company will face a $375 million penalty for the violations, awarding the maximum penalty of $5,000 per violation for 37,500 violations across two counts. The jury decided against Meta on every count, though it declined to award a penalty as high as the state sought, which would have been closer to $2 billion.

It's a landmark verdict delivered just one day after closing arguments. New Mexico argued that Meta had flouted state law by misleading consumers and facilitating child predato …

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Meta’s reckoning over kids safety is in the hands of two juries

2026-03-24T10:56:31-04:00

Mark Zuckerberg. | Image: The Verge | Photo: Bloomberg via Getty Images

Two juries are currently deliberating a series of cases that could either usher in a legal reckoning for Meta, or maintain the status quo in an uphill battle to impose changes or penalties on tech platforms in court.

Yesterday, a New Mexico jury heard closing arguments in a trial where Meta is accused of facilitating child predators on its platforms - allegations the company vehemently denies. And as soon as today, a Los Angeles jury is tentatively expected to reach a verdict in a separate case, which concerns whether Meta and Google should be held liable for making defective products that addicted a young woman. Verdicts against the compa …

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Smart glasses in court are a privacy nightmare

2026-02-20T12:11:33-05:00

When Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg arrived at a Los Angeles courthouse on Wednesday, he did so with a team that appeared to be wearing Meta's camera-equipped Ray-Ban smart glasses. Judge Carolyn Kuhl was concerned. According to CNBC, Kuhl warned anyone recording with the glasses, "If you have done that, you must delete that, or you will be held in contempt of the court." Kuhl also ordered everyone wearing AI smart glasses to remove them. Even after the warning, at least one person was seen wearing the glasses around jurors in a courthouse hallway, although plaintiff attorney Rachel Lanier was told the glasses weren't recording at the time.

Glas …

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The executive that helped build Meta’s ad machine is trying to expose it

2026-02-20T06:11:33-05:00

Brian Boland spent more than a decade figuring out how to build a system that would make Meta money. On Thursday, he told a California jury it incentivized drawing more and more users, including teens, onto Facebook and Instagram - despite the risks.

Boland's testimony came a day after Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg took the stand in a case over whether Meta and YouTube are liable for allegedly harming a young woman's mental health. Zuckerberg framed Meta's mission as balancing safety with free expression, not revenue. Boland's role was to counter this by explaining how Meta makes money, and how that shaped its platforms' design. Boland testified …

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Mark Zuckerberg and his Ray-Ban entourage have their day in court

2026-02-19T07:12:14-05:00

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg entered a downtown Los Angeles courthouse in largely the same way as all the attorneys, reporters, and advocates who'd come to watch his landmark trial testimony, but with one notable difference: he was flanked by an entourage that appeared to be wearing Meta's Ray-Ban smart glasses. To get to the courtroom, he walked past a crowd of parents whose children died after struggling with issues they attribute to the design of social media platforms including those that Meta makes. He would spend the next eight hours often answering questions in his signature matter-of-fact (or less charitably, monotone) cadence, denying h …

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Mark Zuckerberg is taking the stand as social media goes on trial

2026-02-18T08:18:23-05:00

Mark Zuckerberg. | Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images

Lori Schott didn't care what it took to haul her way from her small town in Eastern Colorado to show up to a Los Angeles courtroom where Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is set to testify Wednesday. "I don't care if I had to hire a pack mule to get me here, I was going to be here," she told The Verge outside the courthouse Tuesday.

Schott's daughter Annalee died by suicide at age 18 in 2020, after struggling with body image issues that her mother says were heightened by social media. After her death, Schott found journal entries where Annalee disparaged her own looks and compared herself to other girls' profiles. "I was so worried about what my ch …

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Internal chats show how social media companies discussed teen engagement

2026-01-26T11:46:05-05:00

Recently released documents show the big business opportunity that social media companies saw in recruiting teens to their platforms and how they discussed risks that heavy digital engagement could pose.

The documents were released last week as part of a major set of trials brought by school districts, state attorneys general, and others against Meta, Snap, TikTok and YouTube, alleging the design of their products harmed young users. The Tech Oversight Project, which advocates for more regulations on tech platforms to safeguard teens online, compiled a report on the newly released documents, which were independently reviewed by The Verge. …

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