In Case You Haven't Heard…

A California jury on March 25 found Meta and Google liable for a woman's depression and anxiety tied to compulsive social media use during her childhood, awarding her $6 million in damages, NPR reported. Jurors ordered $3 million in compensatory damages and $3 million in punitive damages, with Meta responsible for 70% of the total. While the financial impact is negligible for the companies, the ruling is significant as the first jury verdict to treat social media platforms as defective products engineered to exploit the developing brains of children and adolescents. The Los Angeles decision came a day after a jury in a separate New Mexico trial ordered Meta to pay $375 million for failing to protect young users from child predators on Instagram and Facebook, finding that the company misled consumers about platform safety and violated state consumer protection laws. That case will move to a second phase in May, when a judge will determine whether Meta created a public nuisance and whether additional penalties are warranted.