Intro

A landmark lawsuit that accuses social media companies of intentionally designing their platforms to be addictive — and causing harm to children and teenagers' mental health — is in court this week in Los Angeles.

The defendants in this case are Meta and YouTube, both of which dispute the allegations. Snap and TikTok both settled in advance of the trial.

Some are calling this social media's "Big Tobacco" moment. Eric Goldman, co-director of the High Tech Law Institute at Santa Clara University, discusses this as well as a series of lawsuits against the social media giants.