Social Networks Face Big Tobacco Moment Over Addiction Cases

Critics and some outside researchers have long held that social media can have a negative impact on mental health, especially among young people. — Critics and some outside researchers have long held that social media can have a negative impact on mental health, especially among young people.
Photographer: Philippe Lopez/AFP/Getty Images

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By Madlin Mekelburg and Maia Spoto (Bloomberg Law)

February 9, 2026 at 3:05 PM UTC

Updated on

February 9, 2026 at 9:58 PM UTC

Facebook, Google and other tech giants for more than a decade have rejected allegations that they build products deliberately to get kids addicted to social media.

For the first time, company executives, including Meta Platforms Inc. Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg, will answer to these accusations in front of a jury as part of a trial that kicked off Monday, and which is drawing comparisons to Big Tobacco’s reckoning with consumer addiction three decades ago.