“Jury finds Meta, YouTube negligent and failed to warn users about the danger using their platforms.”

Views expressed in this science and technology update are those of the reporters and correspondents.

Accessed on 26 March 2026, 0222 UTC.

Content and Source:  “Techmeme.com Newsletter.”

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Social media addiction trial: a Los Angeles jury finds Meta and YouTube were negligent and failed to warn users about the dangers of using their platforms (Jonathan Vanian / CNBC)

@andymstone:  Meta statement on LA verdict: “We respectfully disagree with the verdict and will appeal.  Teen mental health is profoundly complex and cannot be linked to a single app.  We will continue to defend ourselves vigorously as every case is different, and we remain confident in our record of protecting teens online.”  @agrobbonta:  Juries in Los Angeles and New Mexico have found Meta responsible for what we at CA DOJ know to be true: Meta is prioritizing profits over the safety of children and violating consumer protection laws.  We congratulate @NewMexicoDOJ and CA families for standing up to Meta and securing favorable outcomes.  CA DOJ looks forward to holding Meta accountable in our own upcoming August trial in the Bay Area.  @nicoperrino:  I’m concerned about this verdict and the overall trend of treating speech platforms as addictive — and therefore dangerous — products.  Also, the verdict diminishes the responsibility parents have to raise healthy kids.  For example: “Kaley says she began using YouTube at age 6 and Instagram at age 9 and told the jury she was on social media ‘all day long’ as a child.”  Where were the parents?

The jury in Los Angeles’ social media trial awards the plaintiff $3M in compensatory damages and $3M in punitive damages; Meta will pay 70% and YouTube 30% (New York Times)

President Trump names Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Ellison, Jensen Huang, and others to the Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, co-chaired by David Sacks (Wall Street Journal)

@matthewstoller:  The day after a jury convicts Meta of illegally endangering children, Trump puts Mark Zuckerberg on a panel overseeing AI regulation. [image]  @_nathancalvin:  “The following individuals have been appointed: Marc Andreessen Sergey Brin Safra Catz Michael Dell Jacob DeWitte Fred Ehrsam Larry Ellison David Friedberg Jensen Huang John Martinis Bob Mumgaard Lisa Su Mark Zuckerberg”  @senwarren:  NEW: Trump appointed 12 Big Tech executives including Jensen Huang and Mark Zuckerberg to the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. This board is usually made up of top scientists and doctors. In the Trump Administration only money gets a seat at the table.

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SCOTUS rules unanimously that Cox could not be held liable for the piracy of thousands of songs online, after music labels sued the internet provider in 2018 (Ann E. Marimow / New York Times)

@garyshapiro:  We applaud the Supreme Court’s unanimous decision in today’s Cox Communications case, holding that a broadband service provider is not liable for copyright infringement by users of its service.  Platforms like broadband, telecommunications, and cable are tools — like motor vehicles, computers, or recording devices.  As SCOTUS affirmed, providers of these digital tools should not be held legally responsible if users choose to use them for unauthorized or illegal purposes.  @ewess92:  Supreme Court Opinions: Cox Comms v. Sony. Can internet provider Cox be held liable for $1 billion for allowing users to share copyright protected materials over its wired? Justice Thomas explains no, they cannot. Reversing the Fourth Circuit. Justice Sotomayor concurs only [image]  @baseballcrank:  Imagine how many billable hours went into this one, to end up 9-0. I bet Sony wishes it could have settled the case when it had a billion-dollar verdict in hand, and now gets nothing. [image]

Apple rolls out mandatory UK age verification with iOS 26.4, requiring users to provide a credit card or ID, a first in Europe, after UK government pressure (Tim Bradshaw / Financial Times)

Source: Meta on Wednesday laid off around 700 employees in the Reality Labs unit, as well as some in recruiting, sales, and Facebook (Eli Tan / New York Times)

Filing: Meta offers top executives stock options for the first time since its 2012 IPO to retain talent, if it hits stock-price milestones over the coming years (Kurt Wagner / Bloomberg)

Google Research details TurboQuant, a quantization algorithm to enable massive compression of LLMs and vector search engines without sacrificing accuracy (Google Research)

Memo: Sam Altman says OpenAI’s next model finished pretraining, and moves Safety to Research and Security to Scaling; Fidji Simo becomes CEO of “AGI Deployment” (Alex Heath / Sources)

OpenAI hires Kiran Mani, the CEO of Indian streaming platform JioStar, for a newly created role leading its Asia-Pacific operations, reporting to CSO Jason Kwon (Newley Purnell / Bloomberg)