World Business Report Meta and Alphabet shares fall following social media trial defeat
Mar 26, 2026
Emma Wall, Chief Investment Strategist at Hargreaves Lansdown, gives market commentary on legal rulings and oil-driven volatility. Bruce Daisley, former Twitter VP for EMEA, explains how product design chases user time and changed timelines. They discuss legal fallout for big tech, shifts in social media design, and the market moves tied to oil and geopolitical headlines.
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Judges Are Treating Design As Legal Liability
- Courts are starting to hold platforms accountable for design choices that drive addiction and harm to young users.
- A US jury awarded Kayleigh $6m after finding Meta and YouTube intentionally built addictive features that damaged her mental health.
Revenue Targets Drive Addictive Product Engineering
- Big tech firms are structurally pressured to increase user time because valuations depend on relentless revenue growth rates.
- Bruce Daisley explains platforms hire psychologists and data scientists to squeeze incremental minutes out of users, making product design intentionally addictive.
Twitter Used To Be Eight Minutes A Day
- Bruce Daisley recounts Twitter's early simplicity, where users spent about eight minutes a day and there was no algorithm.
- He contrasts that with the post-Elon Musk algorithmic timeline which fills feeds even for users who follow no accounts.