{"id":581178,"date":"2026-04-04T06:29:24","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T06:29:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/581178\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T06:29:24","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T06:29:24","slug":"big-tech-verdict-gets-the-instinct-right-but-the-law-wrong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/581178\/","title":{"rendered":"Big Tech verdict gets the instinct right but the law wrong"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg arrives for the landmark trial over whether social media platforms deliberately addict and harm children, on Feb. 18, in Los Angeles. The evidence at the trial was damning, writes Michael Geist, but the legal theory used by the plaintiff\u2019s lawyers is the wrong tool.Ryan Sun\/The Associated Press<\/p>\n

Michael Geist holds the Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law at the University of Ottawa, Faculty of Law. <\/p>\n

A California jury\u2019s decision last week<\/a> to hold Meta and YouTube liable for harms to a young woman\u2019s mental health has been greeted as a watershed moment. Child safety advocates have called it Big Tech\u2019s \u201cBig Tobacco moment.\u201d Parents who lost children to what they attribute to social media addiction embraced outside the courthouse. Commentators who have long argued that social media companies bear responsibility for the damage their services inflict on young users see the verdict as vindication.<\/p>\n

The instinct behind the decision is understandable. The evidence at trial was damning, as internal Meta documents showed the company knew Instagram was harming adolescents but continued targeting them anyway. But the legal theory the jury endorsed \u2013 that social media platforms are defectively designed products \u2013 is the wrong tool for a real problem, and building on it risks undermining the very accountability the strategy seeks to deliver.<\/p>\n

The case turned on a creative bit of legal engineering. The plaintiff\u2019s lawyers argued that features like infinite scroll, autoplay, push notifications, beauty filters, and algorithmic recommendations are design defects that make Instagram and YouTube unreasonably dangerous, much like a car with a faulty gas tank. Under this theory, the platforms aren\u2019t being held responsible for the content users see but rather for the architecture that delivers it.<\/p>\n

Opinion: The verdict is in: Social media\u2019s harms are a burden families should no longer have to manage<\/a><\/p>\n

If that sounds like a bit of a stretch, it\u2019s because the lawyers needed one. U.S. law has for decades shielded platforms from liability for content posted by users and for how that content is organized. That has effectively blocked conventional negligence claims. The plaintiff\u2019s lawyers repackaged a negligence case as a product liability one, arguing the harm arose from the platform\u2019s own engineering rather than from content. <\/p>\n

The problem is that Instagram\u2019s infinite scroll scrolls infinitely because that is what it was designed to do. The algorithm recommends engaging content because that is its function. These features are not defects nor inherently bad. Indeed, a social media platform without algorithmic recommendations, engagement-driven feeds, and notifications is not a better-designed version of the same product. Treating the core architecture of a content platform as a product defect exposes the verdict to reversal on appeal and sets a precedent that could reach any attention-competing technology, such as streaming services that use autoplay, news apps that push alerts, and video games designed to retain players.<\/p>\n

None of this means the companies should escape accountability. The evidence at trial points to a genuine wrong, but it is not a design defect. It is more straightforward: these companies knew their services posed foreseeable risks to young users and failed to take reasonable steps to mitigate those risks. That is a duty-of-care problem, and it calls for a duty-of-care solution.<\/p>\n

Opinion: A blanket ban won\u2019t solve social media\u2019s ills \u2013 but it can be an effective temporary tool<\/a><\/p>\n

Canada\u2019s proposed Online Harms Act offers a framework that might provide a solution. It does not treat platforms as defective products, nor does it resort to the blunt instrument of outright social media bans for those under 16, measures that are easily circumvented, strip agency from both young users and their parents, and ignore the genuine benefits many young people derive from online connection. Instead, the act would establish a regulatory structure in which platforms must assess risks and demonstrate they are taking reasonable measures to protect users from foreseeable harms. <\/p>\n

There have been misguided proposals to stretch the Act beyond this foundation, including calls to require proactive content monitoring and police reporting for AI chatbots. Those proposals run counter to the act\u2019s design. But it could require social media companies to disclose what they know about the harms their services cause, establish meaningful safety plans for young users, strengthen those plans when they prove insufficient, and open themselves to independent research and reporting. Further, it would create liability for failure to meet these requirements, framed as a duty to act responsibly. <\/p>\n

The California verdict will generate headlines and may accelerate settlements in thousands of pending U.S. cases, including those filed by Canadian school boards. But a jury finding built on a doctrinal workaround is not a durable foundation for platform accountability. A legislative duty to act responsibly is.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg arrives for the landmark trial over whether social media…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":581179,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,84,889,890,884,904,393,394,885,909,910,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":{"0":"post-581178","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-alberta","9":"tag-arts-news","10":"tag-bc","11":"tag-breaking-news","12":"tag-breaking-news-video","13":"tag-british-columbia","14":"tag-ca","15":"tag-canada","16":"tag-canada-news","17":"tag-canada-sports","18":"tag-canada-sports-news","19":"tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","20":"tag-canadian-breaking-news","21":"tag-canadian-news","22":"tag-economy","23":"tag-education","24":"tag-environment","25":"tag-federal-government","26":"tag-foreign-news","27":"tag-globe-and-mail","28":"tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","29":"tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","30":"tag-government","31":"tag-health","32":"tag-life-news","33":"tag-lifestyle","34":"tag-local-news","35":"tag-manitoba","36":"tag-mental-health","37":"tag-mentalhealth","38":"tag-national-news","39":"tag-new-brunswick","40":"tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","41":"tag-northwest-territories","42":"tag-nova-scotia","43":"tag-nunavut","44":"tag-ontario","45":"tag-pei","46":"tag-photos","47":"tag-political-news","48":"tag-political-opinion","49":"tag-politics","50":"tag-politics-news","51":"tag-quebec","52":"tag-sports-news","53":"tag-technology","54":"tag-travel","55":"tag-trudeau","56":"tag-us-news","57":"tag-world-news","58":"tag-yukon"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=581178"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581178\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/581179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=581178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=581178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=581178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}