When the Software Speaks

There are two ways to sue a technology company for what its algorithm did to you. One of them hands the company a constitutional shield. Right now, nobody is choosing between them on purpose. In March, a Los Angeles jury found that Meta and Google had negligently designed products that injured a young woman who had used them since she was a teenager, and put six million dollars on the finding. TikTok and Snap had settled days before trial rather than let the jury reach them. The day before that verdict, a Santa Fe jury found that Meta had violated New Mexico’s consumer-protection law by misrepresenting how safe its platforms were for children, and imposed the maximum civil penalty available: $375 million. Jurors had heard from former employees and gone through hundreds of internal documents. Last week the same judge finished the second phase of that case and ordered Meta to pay $567 million into a treatment fund and to change how its products work for minors — time limits for underage…