In a surprising one-two punch, social media giant Meta, owner of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, was found liable by juries in two different landmark trials landing on two consecutive days in March. Call it March Madness: Social Media Edition.

After seven weeks of hearing evidence, a jury in New Mexico took less than one day to unanimously find against Meta on all counts. The implications of the trial are brutal for Meta, with findings that include:

• Meta’s platforms are “harmful to children’s mental health.”
• Meta hid what it knew about harmful effects on children.
• Meta hid the potential dangers of child sexual exploitation through its platforms.
• Meta prioritized profits over product safety.

In a summary of the findings, PBS News wrote:

The jury agreed with allegations that Meta made false or misleading statements and also agreed that Meta engaged in “unconscionable” trade practices that unfairly took advantage of the vulnerabilities of and inexperience of children.

Ouch, that’s going to leave a mark. How big of a mark? A total of $375 million for violating New Mexico’s state consumer protection laws. Let’s do the math: $375 million times 52 states = $19.5 billion. Throw in the District of Columbia and call it a $20 billion liability on a nationwide scale.

But wait, there’s more! A landmark case in Los Angeles that we’ve been reporting on for months also returned a verdict against the social media companies the day after the New Mexico verdict. A 12-person jury unanimously found in favor of the plaintiff against Meta and Alphabet, the parent company of YouTube. Defendants TikTok and Snapchat settled before the trial began.

In the Los Angeles case, defendants must pay the plaintiff $3 million in compensatory damages, split between Meta and Alphabet 70% to 30%. But that’s just the beginning. Jurors are still deliberating on punitive damages assessed for malice and fraud.

Ultimately, the damages could be catastrophic for social media companies, considering the thousands of similar cases winding their way through the courts. Until these verdicts, social media companies were never found liable for the damages their products cause.

The tech giants were able to hide behind Section 230 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which says that tech platforms are not responsible for the content users share on their platforms. So if a criminal harms a user with their tools, they’re not liable. However, that “230 shield” has now been smashed. 

First, the New Mexico jury found the companies guilty of violating consumer protection laws and not warning users adequately about known defects in their products. Then the Los Angeles jury found the defendants guilty of knowingly designing harmful platforms because they are more profitable, then covering up those “unconscionable” decisions.

Here’s where we’re at today. Social media companies have been found guilty of engineering addiction into their products, conducting studies that indicate certain features are not safe for mental health, then deciding to bury those reports and push those features anyway onto unsuspecting children and their parents — in order to make more money.

Today, everything is on appeal as the tech giants scramble to find lawyers willing to back their dubious claims. Social media companies are scrambling as fast as they can to add meaningful age verification to their platforms. They know realistically this will mean no more anonymous use of social media platforms. For several of these platforms, that will be their demise.

Fear not for the tech giants, however, because they are quickly moving away from social media platforms to AI chatbots. Aren’t those also problematic for mental health? Yes, but the first order of business is passing federal legislation to shield tech companies from any liability over AI psychosis or similar problems. Sorry if their AI agents kill your kids; that’s the price of progress.

Written by Steve O’Keefe. First published March 30, 2026.

Sources:

“Jury finds Meta’s platforms are harmful to children in 1st wave of social media addiction lawsuits,” PBS News, March 24, 2026.

“Meta and YouTube Found Negligent in Landmark Social Media Addiction Case,” The New York Times, March 26, 2026.

“Los Angeles jury reaches verdict in landmark social media addiction case,” Newsday, March 26, 2026.

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