Meta is one of the big names being drawn into court over their algorithmic choices. Meta and YouTube had to pay their share of a $3M lawsuit back in March <\/a>when a jury found them liable for encouraging a child\u2019s development of depression, anxiety, and body dysmorphia. And while the case was notable for the damages, it was only one of many<\/em> cases going for Meta\u2019s pockets. The social media giant tried to get the Supreme Court to dismiss one of these lawsuits, but the Court chose to let Meta fend for themselves. Reuters<\/a> has coverage:<\/p>\n The U.S. Supreme Court declined on Tuesday to hear a bid by Meta Platforms to avoid a lawsuit brought \u200bby Vermont\u2019s attorney general accusing the company of designing its Instagram social media app to be addictive to young users, as big \u200ctechnology companies face mounting legal risks over child and teen safety.<\/p>\n The justices turned away Meta\u2019s appeal of a lower court\u2019s ruling that let the lawsuit proceed, rejecting the company\u2019s argument that courts in Vermont lack jurisdiction over the dispute.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Gotta love civil procedure! Meta argued that it was unfair for them to be subject to Vermont\u2019s jurisdiction, but the state\u2019s Supreme Court wasn\u2019t buying it:<\/p>\n \u201cA company that reaches out and purposefully avails itself of a forum state\u2019s market for its own economic gain can expect to be haled into court in that jurisdiction to account for its conduct related to \u200bthose business activities,\u201d the Vermont Supreme \u200bCourt said.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n If other state courts see the situation similarly \u2014 and the Supreme Court doesn\u2019t step in at a later time \u2014 that opens Meta to be sued in any state. Hey, gotta pay the costs of doing business. If you can target any and every customer where they are, any and every customer should be able to sue you if targeting them does damage where they are. This is a win for any parties threatening social media lawsuits or are in the middle of settlement talks with Meta. <\/p>\n US Supreme Court Won\u2019t Hear Meta\u2019s Challenge To Vermont Social Media Addiction Lawsuit <\/a>[Reuters]<\/p>\n Earlier<\/strong>: Jury Finds Meta And YouTube\u2019s Negligence Led To Addiction In Kids<\/a><\/p>\n Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord\u2122 in the Facebook group\u00a0Law School Memes for Edgy T14s . \u00a0He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boat builder who is learning to swim and is interested in rhetoric, Spinozists and humor. Getting back in to cycling wouldn\u2019t hurt either. You can reach him by email at christopherrashadwilliams@gmail.com<\/a> and by Tweet\/Bluesky at\u00a0@WritesForRent<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n The post Supreme Court Tells Meta To Lick Their Lower Court Wounds<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n If the Dark Knight were to be updated for a 2026 audience, the Joker v. Harvey Dent hospital scene may have gone a little like this: \u201cIf, tomorrow, I tell the press that, like, a girl will develop bulimia from their Twitter usage, or a bus full of kids will fry their attention spans on TikTok, nobody panics, because it\u2019s all \u2018part of the plan.\u2019 But when I say that one little preteen got caught smoking a cigarette, well, then everyone loses their minds!\u201d<\/p>\n What are the dangers of social media and who is responsible? The questions were once fodder for abstract discussions about objective violence<\/a>, but the questions are becoming more concrete and demanding answers. Teenagers have said that the pressure to use social media is stronger than the pressure to drink and smoke<\/a> \u2014 what does that mean for the companies that are accused of ramping up how addictive they are to use?<\/p>\n Meta is one of the big names being drawn into court over their algorithmic choices. Meta and YouTube had to pay their share of a $3M lawsuit back in March <\/a>when a jury found them liable for encouraging a child\u2019s development of depression, anxiety, and body dysmorphia. And while the case was notable for the damages, it was only one of many<\/em> cases going for Meta\u2019s pockets. The social media giant tried to get the Supreme Court to dismiss one of these lawsuits, but the Court chose to let Meta fend for themselves. Reuters<\/a> has coverage:<\/p>\n The U.S. Supreme Court declined on Tuesday to hear a bid by Meta Platforms to avoid a lawsuit brought \u200bby Vermont\u2019s attorney general accusing the company of designing its Instagram social media app to be addictive to young users, as big \u200ctechnology companies face mounting legal risks over child and teen safety.<\/p>\n The justices turned away Meta\u2019s appeal of a lower court\u2019s ruling that let the lawsuit proceed, rejecting the company\u2019s argument that courts in Vermont lack jurisdiction over the dispute.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Gotta love civil procedure! Meta argued that it was unfair for them to be subject to Vermont\u2019s jurisdiction, but the state\u2019s Supreme Court wasn\u2019t buying it:<\/p>\n \u201cA company that reaches out and purposefully avails itself of a forum state\u2019s market for its own economic gain can expect to be haled into court in that jurisdiction to account for its conduct related to \u200bthose business activities,\u201d the Vermont Supreme \u200bCourt said.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n If other state courts see the situation similarly \u2014 and the Supreme Court doesn\u2019t step in at a later time \u2014 that opens Meta to be sued in any state. Hey, gotta pay the costs of doing business. If you can target any and every customer where they are, any and every customer should be able to sue you if targeting them does damage where they are. This is a win for any parties threatening social media lawsuits or are in the middle of settlement talks with Meta. <\/p>\n US Supreme Court Won\u2019t Hear Meta\u2019s Challenge To Vermont Social Media Addiction Lawsuit <\/a>[Reuters]<\/p>\n Earlier<\/strong>: Jury Finds Meta And YouTube\u2019s Negligence Led To Addiction In Kids<\/a><\/p>\n Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord\u2122 in the Facebook group\u00a0Law School Memes for Edgy T14s . \u00a0He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boat builder who is learning to swim and is interested in rhetoric, Spinozists and humor. Getting back in to cycling wouldn\u2019t hurt either. You can reach him by email at [email\u00a0protected]<\/a> and by Tweet\/Bluesky at\u00a0@WritesForRent<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" If the Dark Knight were to be updated for a 2026 audience, the Joker v. Harvey Dent hospital scene may have gone a little like this: \u201cIf, tomorrow, I tell the press that, like, a girl will develop bulimia from their Twitter usage, or a bus full of kids will fry their attention spans on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":152923,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-152946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Chris-Williams-2025-Cxeb8E.jpg?fit=512%2C288&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152946"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152946\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/152923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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