By Jennifer Elias,Jonathan Vanian
Publication Date: 2026-04-03 12:30:00
Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg arrives outside court to take the stand at trial in a key test case accusing Meta and Google’s YouTube of harming kids’ mental health through addictive platforms, in Los Angeles, California, U.S., Feb. 18, 2026.
Mike Blake | Reuters
For the last three decades, internet giants have been able to avoid legal exposure for content on their platforms, thanks to a law that differentiates the companies from online publishers. But those safeguards appear to be weakening.
Meta and Google, which dominate the U.S. digital ad market, find themselves as defendants in a host of lawsuits that collectively serve to undermine the long-held notion that they have legal protection for what surfaces on their sites, apps and services. Companies like TikTok and Snap are in the same predicament.
The unifying aspect of the recent cases is that they’re crafted to circumvent Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which Congress passed in 1996 and President Bill Clinton…