A jury says Meta and Google hurt a kid. What now?
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Today on Decoder , we’re talking about the landmark social media addiction trials that just resulted in two major verdicts against Big Tech. There’s one case in New Mexico against Meta, and another in California against both companies , which have said they plan to appeal.
These are complicated cases with some huge repercussions for both how these platforms work and the very nature of speech in America, so to help us work through it all, I’ve brought on two heavy hitters: my friend Casey Newton, who is founder and editor of the excellent newsletter Platformer and co-host of the Hard Fork podcast, as well as Verge senior policy reporter Lauren Feiner. Lauren was actually in that Los Angeles courtroom where executives like Mark Zuckerberg took the stand in the case of a 20-year-old woman named Kaley, who successfully argued Meta and Google negligently designed their platforms in ways that contributed to her mental health issues.
These cases, the first in a wave of injury lawsuits targeting tech companies, are about the design decisions of platforms like Instagram and YouTube. They argue that the platforms have fundamental flaws that harm users, especially teenagers, and that these companies knew about these problems and were negligent in shipping these features anyway. These cases are part of much larger set of moves that aim to fundamentally change the legal mechanisms that exist that might regulate social media platforms.
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When we say harm, we’re not just talking about addictive design that brings users back compulsively. It’s also about features like algorithmic recommendations and camera filters that make issues like anxiety, depression, and body dysmorphia worse. This emphasis on how the platforms work, as opposed to focusing solely on the content, is part of a
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Podcasts Streaming Tech A jury says Meta and Google hurt a kid. What now? Why nuclear options like age limits and repealing Section 230 won’t make social media safer. by Nilay Patel Apr 2, 2026, 2:00 PM UTC Podcasts Streaming Tech A jury says Meta and Google hurt a kid. What now? Why nuclear options like age limits and repealing Section 230 won’t make social media safer. by Nilay Patel Apr 2, 2026, 2:00 PM UTC Nilay Patel is editor-in-chief of The Verge, host of the Decoder podcast , and co-host of The Vergecast . Today on Decoder , we’re talking about the landmark social media addiction trials that just resulted in two major verdicts against Big Tech. There’s one case in New Mexico against Meta, and another in California against both companies , which have said they plan to appeal. These are complicated cases with some huge repercussions for both how these platforms work and the very nature of speech in America, so to help us work through it all, I’ve brought on two heavy hitters: my friend Casey Newton, who is founder and editor of the excellent newsletter Platformer and co-host of the Hard Fork podcast, as well as Verge senior policy reporter Lauren Feiner. Lauren was actually in that Los Angeles courtroom where executives like Mark Zuckerberg took the stand in the case of a 20-year-old woman named Kaley, who successfully argued Meta and Google negligently designed their platforms in ways that contributed to her mental health issues. These cases, the first in a wave of injury lawsuits targeting tech companies, are about the design decisions of platforms like Instagram and YouTube. They argue that the platforms have fundamental flaws that harm users, especially teenagers, and that these companies knew about these problems and were negligent in shipping these features anyway. These cases are part of much larger set of moves that aim to fundamentally change the legal mechanisms that exist that might regulate social media platforms. Verge subscribers, don’t forget yo...
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