Marketplace Tech Bytes: Week in Review — Meta, YouTube’s social media addiction case, a new AI literacy course, and Kalshi’s prediction market self-regulation
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Mar 27, 2026 
Maria Curi, tech policy reporter at Axios, breaks down this week’s big tech headlines. She covers a landmark court ruling on social platforms’ addictive design and its wider legal ripple effects. She also explains a new AI literacy course from the Department of Labor and Kalshi’s fresh self-regulation steps for prediction markets.
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Jury Finds Platforms Negligent Over Addictive Design
- Jurors found Meta and YouTube negligent for knowingly designing addictive features like infinite scroll and autoplay that harmed a young user’s mental health.
- Internal documents showed executives were aware of risks yet rolled out those features, reframing platforms as products not just speech.
Bellwether Case Could Trigger Wider Legal Shift
- The case is a bellwether among 2,000+ similar suits and could catalyze broader legal and congressional action rather than focus on the dollar award.
- Treating social apps as products opens new legal theories that may push regulatory or product changes like age verification or ending encrypted messages.
Try The Labor Department's Ten Minute AI Course
- The Labor Department launched a free AI literacy course delivered by text to demystify AI and teach basics like prompting and what large language models are.
- The course is short (10 minutes/day for a week) with emoji and GIFs, aimed to make AI less scary for workers.