A disdain towards the notion of “consequence” somewhat defines the contemporary western moment of the powerful. So two recent US court decisions that are adverse to the interests of – oh my god, would you believe it? – tech companies should be heralded to the full height of every sky.

Within days of each other this week, a court in New Mexico and another in Los Angeles determined that social media platforms were legally responsible for harms caused to users.

In New Mexico, a suit brought by that state’s attorney general claimed that Meta – the owner of Instagram and Facebook, among other platforms – had misled its users about its safety processes, and enabled child sexual exploitation on its services.

Evidence cited by the plaintiffs demonstrated failures to implement basic safety measures such as effective age verification, while undercover agents posing as children on the platforms reported they had been contacted by adults and subjected to sexualised communication.

Inconveniently for the Meta defence, internal documents that acknowledged risks of exploitation and harm on platforms were provided to the court.

A jury was convinced that Meta’s actions violated consumer protection law and engaged in practices both deceptive and unfair. Knowingly exploiting their users’ lack of knowledge around platform safety was deemed........

© The Guardian