If juries are regulating Big Tech, where is Congress?

A New Mexico jury recently ordered Meta to pay $375 million for exposing children to online sexual predators. One day later, a California jury ordered Google and Meta to pay millions to a woman who said YouTube and Instagram caused her depression and body image distress as a child. 

Across the country, ordinary citizens on juries are essentially stepping in for Congress, which has thus far failed to hold Big Tech companies accountable for deliberately addicting children, connecting them with predators, and pushing content that promotes self-harm, eating disorders, and sexual exploitation. In case after case, plaintiffs have presented evidence that companies knew their platforms could harm young users, but chose not to warn families or redesign their products. Instead, they tried to hide or downplay the risks.

Internal company research has confirmed as much: Meta’s own studies found that Instagram worsened body image problems for roughly 1 in 3 teenage girls,