How Instagram addictiveness lawsuit could reshape social media – platform design meets product liability

A lawsuit against Meta and Google avoids the issue of liability for content and focuses on allegations that social media platforms themselves are harmful by design.

By: Carolina Rossini, UMass Amherst, The Conversation

Outlets: The Conversation

Published: March 6, 2026

Words: 1,363

Last Updated: 3 days, 20 hours ago

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By Carolina Rossini, UMass Amherst

A Los Angeles courtroom is hosting what may become the most consequential legal challenge Big Tech has ever faced.

This is an inflection point in the global debate over Big Tech liability: For the first time, an American jury is being asked to decide whether platform design itself can give rise to product liability – not because of what users post on them, but because of how they were built. …

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