Brendan O'Connor Was this the week the tide turned against social media giants?
Mar 28, 2026
Eoghan Cleary, a Wicklow teacher turned child online-safety advocate with the Sexual Exploitation Research & Policy Institute, discusses rising legal accountability for tech platforms. He covers a landmark $6m California verdict, links between algorithms and harms like drug-related content and self-harm, EU rules vs enforcement, and calls for safety-by-design, age checks and executive liability.
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US Court Wins Signal Wave Of Global Lawsuits
- US verdicts against Meta and Google set legal precedents that will fuel thousands of similar cases.
- Eoghan Cleary notes cases include algorithmic addiction claims and lawsuits against Snapchat for facilitating fentanyl sales to children who died.
EU Rules Exist But Enforcement Is The Gap
- EU law already outlaws many platform harms that US courts are now finding in verdicts, shifting the problem toward enforcement.
- Cleary emphasises Ireland's role because many tech companies host headquarters in Dublin, so enforcement should come from Irish authorities.
An 11 Year Old Saw Violent Sexual Content On TikTok
- Children have reported repeatedly seeing extreme content like beheadings, murders and violent sexual videos on feeds.
- Cleary recounts an 11-year-old who saw a video of a woman being strangled during violent sex appear on TikTok six years ago.