Social media effects on young people goes to court

NPR - Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg will take the stand in Los Angeles today in a trial that could reshape social media. The plaintiffs are accusing platforms like Instagram and Facebook of being intentionally designed to hook teenagers, sparking a nationwide youth mental health crisis. The case hinges on whether the tech companies engineer “defective products” to exploit vulnerabilities in young people's brains.

For years, social media companies have avoided legal consequences by using a legal shield known as Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, NPR’s Bobby Allyn says. The law protects online platforms from liability for user-generated content by treating sites as intermediaries rather than publishers. Now, lawyers are suing the tech companies under product liability laws. They argue that the platforms are essentially defective products because of features such as infinite scroll and autoplay. The plaintiffs say that the social media sites' impact on children’s brains is similar to that of a slot machine and that the companies should be held accountable. If the jury sides with the plaintiffs, the case could result in a multi-billion-dollar settlement and significant changes to social media apps’ operations.