Experts discuss complications and concerns from social media trial verdicts

Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, lost back-to-back jury trials this week centered on accusations that social media platforms cause harm to children. While Meta plans to appeal, as does YouTube, also found liable in one of the verdicts, the cases heighten the probability of many more lawsuits to follow.

Virginia Tech social media expert Megan Duncan and political communications expert Cayce Myers outlined the possible effects of the case on public policy and consumers, while online digital privacy and tracking expert Donna Wertalik highlighted concerns for parents.

Consequences for platforms

“The two verdicts finding Meta responsible in New Mexico and Meta and YouTube liable in California show that United Sates juries are willing to hold social media companies financially to blame for how social media affects individuals and society in ways that haven’t been done before,” Duncan said. “Both juries took more than a week of careful deliberation to come to similar decisions. They found the companies liable, but not to the maximum extent. Both cases will be appealed, and neither damages award will bankrupt the companies. The bigger impact will be an almost certain wave of similar lawsuits.”

“The verdicts signal a new level of legal accountability for social media,” said Myers. “However, this is the beginning of a longer legal journey, which will likely play out in the federal appellate courts.  On the horizon is a larger legal question about big tech accountability for user design, which has impact not only for social media companies but artificial intelligence companies as well.

“There is potential momentum there for future lawsuits, which may result in massive damages for social media companies,” he said. “There is also the shifting public perception about the responsibility of social media companies in their designs of platforms themselves. Negligence as a legal standard is important in the analysis here as these cases have redefined the legal duty of social media companies.”

“It’s notable that both of these verdicts relate to youth and children,” Duncan said. “Society is often more protective of how media of all forms would affect people under 18. Since the days of the first comic books and silent movies, we’ve had extra concern — or even panic — about the corruption of youth by media.” 

Concerns for parents

“This is the first of more than 1,500 similar cases against social media companies to go to trial — the outcome of this case in California could guide how those other cases are resolved,” said Wertalik. “The plaintiff started using YouTube at age 6 and Instagram at age 9, which makes the circumstances viscerally relatable for any parent.”

Key facts emerged from the trial that should be concerning to parents, she said. “Internal Meta documents showed that 11-year-olds were four times as likely to keep coming back to Instagram compared to competing apps, despite the platform requiring users to be at least 13. Those documents also showed that the company decided to allow beauty filters that manipulate a user's appearance despite employees and 18 experts raising concerns they could be harmful.

“Also of concern, the New Mexico jury found that Meta violated state child exploitation laws and ordered it to pay $375 million in civil penalties,” she said. “In their defenses, Meta and YouTube pointed to safety features like parental oversight tools and teen content and privacy restrictions as evidence they protect teens, but the jury didn’t buy it, which raises the question of what parents can actually rely on.”

Through the Voices of Privacy project, which Wertalik runs with Pamplin College of Business Professor France Bélanger, “we have advocated for schools to get involved. Students should learn in school about online privacy and tracking. This is a team effort to save our children.” 

About Duncan
Megan Duncan is an associate professor in the School of Communication. Her research focuses on how partisans judge the credibility of and engage with the news. Using survey-embedded experiments, surveys, and other quantitative methods, she’s interested in knowing more about audiences, their perceptions of the news, how they form opinions, and how to use this knowledge to make democracy stronger.

About Myers
Cayce Myers is the director of graduate studies and professor at the School of Communication in the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences. His work focuses on legal issues affecting communication practice and he has recently published on issues related to social media liability and artificial intelligence regulation. He specializes in media history, political communication, and laws that affect public relations practice.

About Wertalik
Donna Wertalik is a professor of practice in marketing at Virginia Tech’s Pamplin College of Business,  where she  has led brand strategy and serves as the faculty founder of PRISM, the college’s award-winning faculty led, student-run marketing agency. With three decades of industry experience at companies including Nestlé and Ogilvy, and as co-founder of the Voices of Privacy initiative, she is a nationally recognized voice in digital marketing, consumer behavior, and online privacy. She is the 2025 recipient of the Michael O’Hara Leadership Award from the Direct Marketing Association of Washington.

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