"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."
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg will take the stand in Los Angeles in a trial alleging that platforms like Instagram and Facebook were intentionally designed to hook teenagers and spark a nationwide youth mental health crisis. The case centers on whether tech companies engineered "defective products" to exploit vulnerabilities in young people's brains. Social media companies have long used Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act to avoid liability for user-generated content, and lawyers now seek to sue under product liability laws, pointing to features like infinite scroll and autoplay. If plaintiffs prevail, the case could result in a multi-billion-dollar settlement and significant operational changes to apps. Separately, the Department of Homeland Security confirmed the departure of Tricia McLaughlin amid a funding lapse, and the U.S. and Iran committed to further negotiations after indirect talks in Geneva.
Read at www.npr.org
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