Social media’s ‘Big Tobacco’ moment may have finally arrived

A pair of landmark court cases found Meta and YouTube guilty last week of harming young users by designing algorithms that were addictive and led to mental health distress. The damages assessed against the companies amounted to a fraction of a percent of their annual earnings. The long-term implications, however, could be far more significant.

The rulings found that programmed algorithms are not protected by Section 230, the federal law that shields social media companies from liability for user-posted content.