TLDR Tech / Marketing
Landmark losses for Meta and YouTube as big tech misses the point
Juries in California and New Mexico delivered the first verdicts holding Meta liable for harm caused by its products' design, awarding a combined $381 million in damages. Meta's legal strategy focused on the absence of social media addiction as a clinical diagnosis, but its own internal research undermined that position. One employee email compared the company to tobacco firms targeting minors, and another described users developing reward tolerance similar to gambling. YouTube was also found liable in the California case despite arguing it is a video streaming platform and not a social media site.
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