Verdicts against Meta and Google may bring a new era of big tech accountability

## Summary
Technology Verdicts against Meta and Google may bring a new era of big tech accountability April 3, 2026 6:00 AM ET Heard on Morning Edition Shannon Bond Verdicts against Meta and Google may bring a new era of big tech accountability Audio will be available later today. Technology Jury finds Meta and Google negligent in social media harms trial Last week, that legal strategy scored its highest profile victories yet in two separate jury trials in Los Angeles and New Mexico focused on how social media platforms can harm children . New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez has said he will also ask the court to force Meta to change its apps to make them safer. "This is the dawn of a new era, with people finally getting to hold tech platforms responsible for the harms they cause," Goldberg said. Now, they are sounding an alarm about AI chatbots Advocates hope the early legal victories against the social media platforms will generate momentum outside courtrooms, too, to pass long-stalled tech regulation and to force change in Silicon Valley. "If you go and look at what really changed the tobacco industry, it wasn't one thing, it was everything together," said Gardner, the child safety advocate.

## Article Content
Technology
Verdicts against Meta and Google may bring a new era of big tech accountability
April 3, 2026
6:00 AM ET
Heard on
Morning Edition
Shannon Bond
Verdicts against Meta and Google may bring a new era of big tech accountability
Audio will be available later today.
Mary Rodee, whose 15-year-old son died by suicide, points to a banner listing victims' names outside Los Angeles Superior Court on March 25, 2026, after a jury found Meta and YouTube liable for harming a young woman through the addictive design of their social media platforms. The landmark verdict could reshape how the tech industry faces legal accountability for harms to users.
Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images
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Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images
In 2017, Matthew Herrick sued the dating app Grindr, after his ex-boyfriend used fake profiles to harass Herrick and send hundreds of strangers to his home.
Herrick's lawyer, Carrie Goldberg, argued Grindr had made a defective product, because the company claimed it couldn't stop the
harassment
. But the case was thrown out, on the grounds of a longstanding federal law that says online platforms aren't responsible for the content people post.
"We appealed and appealed and lost every appeal," Goldberg said. "And then the case was ultimately dismissed."
Technology
The story of Section 230 goes back to an AOL troll. Now the law may be undone
That federal law,
Section 230
of the Communications Decency Act of 1996, has long been a
shield
that has stopped many lawsuits against tech companies in their tracks. But in the nine years since Herrick sued Grindr, cracks have started to form.
Courts have become more open to arguments that tech companies can be held accountable for the way they design their products — the argument Goldberg made in the Grindr case.
Decisions about how apps work and are monetized "are things that, in my mind, the platform should be liable for if they get it wrong and injure somebody," Goldberg said.
Technology
Snapchat Can Be Sued Over Role In Fatal Car Crash, Court Rules
In 2021, Goldberg sued Omegle, a video chat site accused of enabling child sexual exploitation, and the site
shut down
after the two sides reached a settlement. The same year, an appeals court said a
lawsuit against Snapchat
over a speed filter feature involved in deadly car crashes could proceed, rejecting the company's argument that the case should be thrown out on Section 230 grounds. (Snapchat went on to settle the case in 2023.)
The product liability argument takes a chapter from the legal campaign against Big Tobacco in the 1990s, a playbook advocates for tech accountability have embraced.
Technology
Jury finds Meta and Google negligent in social media harms trial
Last week, that legal strategy scored its highest profile victories yet in two separate jury trials in Los Angeles and New Mexico focused on how
social media platforms can harm children
.
In LA, the jury found Instagram owner Meta and Google's YouTube
deliberately designed their apps to be addictive
, contributing to the mental health struggles of a young woman who started using the apps as a child. It awarded her $6 million in damages.
The New Mexico jury ordered Meta to pay the state
$375 million for failing to protect young users
from child predators. The company could face even more penalties in a second phase of the trial set to start in May, over whether Meta created a public nuisance. New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez has said he will also ask the court to force Meta to change its apps to make them safer.
"This is the dawn of a new era, with people finally getting to hold tech platforms responsible for the harms they cause," Goldberg said.
Health
Research points to how companies could make social media less addictive for teens
Chatbots, gambling apps, video games could be next
Sarah Gardner was outside the courtroom in downtown LA when that verdict came down. She leads the Heat Initiative, an advocacy group that focuses on online child safety, and says the recent verdicts mark a turning point for that work.
"It's just created a different playing field than we had even a few months ago," she said.
Meta and Google both plan to appeal the verdicts. Meta says teen mental health can't be linked to a single app, and Google says YouTube isn't social media. Ultimately, many expect the Supreme Court will end up weighing in on this legal theory of liability.
Mental Health
AI chatbots upended their lives. Now they're finding support from each other
But there are already more similar lawsuits underway. Thousands of
related cases against social media platforms
are working their way through state and federal courts, while other cases are also being filed against the makers of video games, online gambling apps, and artificial intelligence chatbots.
The credit rating agency
Moody's counts more than 4,000 pending cases
targeting 166 companies alleging addictive software design.
Relatives of victims, including Lori Sc

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## Expert Analysis

### Merits
- The landmark verdict could reshape how the tech industry faces legal accountability for harms to users.
- The decision delivering a landmark verdict that could reshape how the tech industry faces legal accountability for the mental health of young users.

### Areas for Consideration
N/A

### Implications
- Technology Verdicts against Meta and Google may bring a new era of big tech accountability April 3, 2026 6:00 AM ET Heard on Morning Edition Shannon Bond Verdicts against Meta and Google may bring a new era of big tech accountability Audio will be available later today.
- The landmark verdict could reshape how the tech industry faces legal accountability for harms to users.
- Now the law may be undone That federal law, Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996, has long been a shield that has stopped many lawsuits against tech companies in their tracks.
- Decisions about how apps work and are monetized "are things that, in my mind, the platform should be liable for if they get it wrong and injure somebody," Goldberg said.

### Expert Commentary
This article covers meta, tech, against topics. Notable strengths include discussion of meta. Readability: Flesch-Kincaid grade 0.0. Word count: 1313.