Is Social Media the New Big Tobacco?

As cases get to juries in 2026 over the arguably addictive and harmful nature of social media for minors due to programming decisions in the platforms to engage users, we explore the legal issues that sit beneath potential product liability theories and the broad grant of federal immunity to social media platforms codified in law at the inception of the internet era. How has the immunity worked? What are its limits? Is the era of deep immunity for the social media platforms changing, and will social media go the way of Big Tobacco?

Surveying trial and appellate decisions, and one Supreme Court ruling to try to read the tea leaves, this program lets you decide whether immunity should attach, and if not, whether the design structures embedded in social media algorithms to gain user engagement and attention cause harm to children and should be regulated by our courts. As the 2026 trial in Los Angeles Superior Court—where Mark Zuckerberg testified—is the first case in the nation to get to a jury on such a theory, the topic is on the very cutting-edge of the law and will be percolating for years to come as juries reach decisions and cases are appealed. This will give you the fundamentals of Section 230 immunity, copyright immunity, product liability negligence law, and foreign regulation of social media that is emerging across the globe.