They were found liable for designing platforms that are dangerous for children and for teens.<\/a><\/p>\n In what was a landmark verdict in the States in two courts, it may well turn out to be a turning point in the backlash against the platforms.\u00a0<\/p>\n It remains unclear if similar cases will be seen in Ireland in the coming years.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Irish Council for Civil Liberties has said that if the state were not blocking them from taking such cases, they’d already be doing it.\u00a0<\/p>\n Dr. Johnny Ryan, Director of Enforce at the Irish Council of Civil Liberties told The Pat Kenny Show on Sunday that the trial was the \u2018big tobacco moment\u2019 for Meta.<\/p>\n \u201cThey were shown to know the harm that they’re doing and to do it anyway\u201d, Mr Ryan told Newstalk.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThey picked profit over children’s health. It was no surprise that they were going to have their day in court and it was going to be a bad one.<\/p>\n \u201cThe surprise is that this is a landmark case in the US because it changes the kind of litigation you can do there.<\/p>\n \u201cThat’s a surprise because we should have been doing them here already.\u201d<\/p>\n Currently, Irish law does not allow for public interest groups to raise funds to take cases against corporations.\u00a0<\/p>\n There is a new class action system in Europe under a directive called the Collective Redress Directive which allows for public interest groups to take litigation on behalf of victims.\u00a0<\/p>\n However, when the Irish state put that European directive into Irish law, it did not provide the legal way that funds could be raised to take those cases.<\/p>\n![\"Google](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/EMJN8D.jpg\")
Children play with a mobile phone. Picture by: Alamy.com<\/p>\n
![\"Google](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1174115.jpg\")
Offices of Google in Dublin. Photo by PAUL FAITH.<\/p>\n