Meta and YouTube’s recent losses in youth social media addiction cases may put artists and activists at risk

Jury verdicts against Meta and YouTube in March in California and New Mexico are raising concerns that legal strategies targeting “platform design” could affect online speech and the digital communities artists rely on. In California, a jury found YouTube and Meta liable for design features that allegedly addicted and harmed a young woman; in New Mexico, Meta was found guilty of concealing what it knew about child exploitation within its messaging features. The cases sought to bypass Section 230, the long-standing US legal protection that generally shields platforms from being treated as publishers of user-generated content. By framing tools like autoplay, recommendations, notifications, likes, and infinite scroll as product-design choices rather than editorial decisions, the lawsuits may open new avenues for liability that critics argue could weaken protections for moderation, privacy, and online expression.

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