The Guardian view on social media in the dock: tech bros move fast – society is trying to catch up | Editorial

Two court cases have shown how companies can be forced to take responsibility for their impact on public healthDebate about online harms has tended to focus on abusive and hateful content. But the form in which content is delivered is at least as important. That point is central to this week’s , by two US juries. It will take more than these cases to loosen big tech’s tight grip on much of the world’s attention. But the fact that both companies were found liable in California, for deliberately designing addictive products that harmed a child, is a massive win for the coalition of campaigners aiming to use the US courts to force the platforms to change their products.The second case against Meta, in New Mexico, found it liable over the use of Facebook and Instagram for , with a cited in the complaint. The jury ordered it to pay $375m in civil liabilities; the state’s attorney general is seeking platform changes and financial penalties.Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our section, please .