Sign of things to come: Meta, Google’s ‘Big Tobacco’ moment

A landmark jury verdict holding Meta and Alphabet’s Google liable for harming a young user with products designed to be addictive threatens to put the social networking companies in the same category as Big Tobacco and opioid makers — a potential crack in their shield from legal responsibility for what happens on their platforms.

While the $US6 million ($8.6 million) in damages a jury in Los Angeles awarded to the 20-year-old plaintiff – a decision the companies vowed to appeal – will barely register on their balance sheets, the impact of the verdict will likely be more damaging and harder to quantify.

Bloomberg