Meta and Google Found Liable in Landmark Social Media Addiction Trial

In a landmark ruling that could affect thousands of future cases, Google and Meta were found liable Wednesday for inducing depression and anxiety in a woman who obsessively used social media as a child. It was the first jury trial in which tech companies were sued over the addictive nature of their social media apps. Google and Meta own the apps YouTube and Instagram, respectively.

The California jury ruled that the companies should award the woman a total of $3 million in damages, with Meta paying 70 percent of the fee.

The plaintiff, a 20-year-old woman identified as Kaley, said she began using YouTube at age 6 and Instagram at age 11. Her lawyers contended that the social media apps were intentionally addicting, and that both companies knew they were creating mental health issues in children. They presented an internal memo from Meta that detailed how 11-year-olds were four times more likely to use Instagram than rival apps. This contradicts Instagram’s own terms, which require users to be at least 13.

Lawyers for Google and Meta argued that their apps were being unfairly blamed for broader mental health problems in adolescents. Both companies are expected to appeal the decision.

The owners of Snapchat and TikTok, two more popular social media apps, reached pretrial settlements with the plaintiff back in January.

The ruling will likely impact roughly 2,000 ongoing lawsuits against social media companies. The suits, filed by parents and school districts around the country, similarly allege that the tech behemoths should be punished for getting children addicted to their services.

This story has been updated.

President Donald Trump has been facilitating shipments of oil to private businesses in Cuba while cutting off government-run institutions for months.

Since capturing Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in January, the United States has barred Cuba from receiving any Venezuelan oil and threatened any countries that export oil to the island country. But since early February, the U.S. has exported 30,000 barrels of oil to Cuba’s small but important private sector, Reuters reported Wednesday.

This means that while private businesses, like foreign-owned hotels, will receive a boon amid the ongoing blockade, state-run entities will suffer. Speaking to NBC News’s Meet the Press Sunday, Cuba’s Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernández de Cossío called Trump’s fuel policy an “energy asphyxiation,” and claimed it had already caused mass disruptions to Cuba’s health care system.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said this is all part of the plan. The policy was “entirely designed to put the private sector and individual private Cubans—not affiliated with the government, not affiliated with the military—in a privileged position.”

In February, the U.S. Bureau of Industry and Security released guidance that authorized the export of gas to eligible Cuban businesses, specifying that the fuel was not available for resale. Fuel soon began to trickle into private companies that were initially crippled by the U.S. blockade, three Cuban businesspeople told Reuters.

Cuba has historically required 100,000 barrels of oil per day to fuel cars, planes, and power plants. Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel announced last week the country had not received any ​fuel in three months. The Trump administration is reportedly pressing Diaz-Canel to step down as part of the president’s so-called “friendly takeover” of the island. Cuba has already outlined some changes it plans to make to open up the island’s economy to the U.S.

In 2026, 61 ships carrying goods imported by private companies arrived in Cuba, including fuel. While overall arrivals are down, there has been an increase in shipments originating from a key energy corridor on America’s Gulf Coast, according to vessel tracking data from LSEG Data & Analytics analyzed by Reuters.

In a failed attempt to prevent voter fraud, a Wisconsin man was convicted of … voter fraud.

Harry Wait, a 71-year-old MAGA loyalist, was found guilty of election fraud and identity theft in Racine County, Wisconsin, on Tuesday. In 2022, he admitted to unlawfully requesting the ballots of Republican state Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and Democratic Racine Mayor Cory Mason, which he claims proves how easy it is to commit voter fraud.

He was charged with two misdemeanor election fraud charges and one felony identity theft charge.

The retired consultant is the leader of H.O.T Government, a Wisconsin group that aims “to hold public officials and institutions accountable to the people they serve.” The group claims both Wisconsin and federal elections are riddled with fraud, and it unwaveringly maintains that President Donald Trump won the 2020 election. Trump lost Wisconsin by more than 20,000 votes.

Wait has spent years mobilizing against Wisconsin’s state website that allows voters to order mail-in ballots, the same one he used to feign the identities of Vos and Mason.

His conviction comes as Trump and the GOP desperately try to pass the SAVE Act, a bill that would supposedly prevent voter fraud (which is exceedingly rare), but in reality would disenfranchise millions of marginalized voters.

“It’s not about me. It’s about the republic,” Wait said during the trial. His actions have garnered praise among Republicans. At rallies, supporters across Wisconsin have worn “Free Harry Wait” T-shirts, and in 2022, Senator Ron Johnson called Wait a “white hat hacker.”

“I would do it again,” Wait told WTMJ following the verdict.

When Texas Representative Pete Sessions went on C-SPAN to take questions from everyday Americans on Wednesday morning, he was probably expecting something a bit more polite than what he got.

Instead, the Republican lawmaker received a call from “Jack, in Silver Spring, Maryland,” who chose not to mince words:

“Your party has given the power of the presidency to an insane, pedophilic serial killer. You’re evil, and this—”

Jack was then cut off by the C-SPAN moderator.

Amusingly, Sessions did not dispute the claim that Donald Trump is “an insane, pedophilic serial killer.” After nodding subtly as he listened to the caller, Sessions instead offered a wishy-washy statement about tolerating those with different opinions.

“I would just say that I am aware, across this country, that there are people who have varying views. I would tell him that I can control myself. And I try to work on a straightforward, honest basis, with a bipartisan mission that I have with Mr. [Democratic Representative Kweisi] Mfume and the duty and responsibility of my job on Oversight. I would like for him to at least offer some credibility to—there are people who are trying to move this nation away from anything that would be a fight to fix.”

Sessions is a boilerplate Republican who has served in Congress for 28 years. He’s perhaps best known for his love of magic—he introduced a bill that would recognize magic “as a rare and valuable art form and national treasure,” which has been stalled in committee for 10 years—and his passion for trading stocks while in office.

Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson was caught lying while trying to explain why President Trump rejected bipartisan plans to reopen the government and get TSA workers paid.

“Mr. Speaker, it seems as if the Republicans and Democrats are talking past one another right now. Is the only person who can solve this the President of the United States, and why isn’t he involved?” Fox News’s Chad Pergram asked Johnson during a Wednesday press conference.

“Well, I think he is involved,” Johnson replied. “I mean, I know he had a group of—”

“He shot down the plan yesterday,” Pergram said.

“Well, that’s what’s been reported, OK,” Johnson replied.

“He said that in the Oval Office that he was not pleased.”

“Well I actually have his exact quote somewhere … to paraphrase him, I think he said that he’s a little skeptical or cynical that a deal’s gonna come together,” Johnson said. “What we’re hearing in our chamber is that there’s discussions going on. Democrats are demanding to break off parts of Homeland [Security] and fund it separately.”

Johnson’s long answer was actually less accurate than the “reporting” he dismissed. Earlier this week, GOP Senator Joe Kennedy stated plainly that they were prepared to work with Democrats to reopen the government by the end of this week, but Trump “said no. No deals with the Democrats.” The president himself doubled down on that, stating that he would be unhappy with virtually “any deal they make.”

That sounds like the president is not involved, and does not want to be—regardless of what Johnson spews. Meanwhile, hundreds of TSA agents continue to go unpaid, and the lines at airports keep getting longer.