UK Government to Consult US Lawyer After Landmark Meta and YouTube Ruling

Matthew Bergman, the US trial lawyer who led a landmark legal action against Meta and YouTube, is set to advise the UK government as ministers evaluate tougher regulations on the design of social media platforms.

Bergman is expected to meet with science and technology secretary Liz Kendall, safeguarding minister Jess Phillips, and various peers and backbenchers to share evidence regarding the addictive nature of social media technology.

The consultation follows a March 26, 2026, verdict from a Los Angeles jury, which found that Google and Meta intentionally built addictive platforms. The jury held Meta 70 per cent liable and YouTube 30 per cent liable for harms caused to a 20-year-old woman who testified that she spent up to 16 hours a day on Instagram.

The court awarded the plaintiff $6 million in damages. While this figure is small relative to the total revenues of the tech giants, the ruling is regarded as a significant legal precedent focusing on platform design rather than specific content.

Focus on Addictive Design

The legal proceedings in Los Angeles centered on features such as algorithmic feeds and infinite scrolling, which lawyers for the claimant described as digital casinos designed to maximize user engagement and make it difficult for users to stop scrolling.

Internal documents disclosed during the trial revealed that Meta employees discussed the addictive nature of their products. Some staff members described Instagram as a drug and referred to themselves as pushers, noting that top-down directives were aimed at ensuring users kept returning to the platform.

Bergman stated that documents and testimony unearthed during the case show that the companies knew their platforms were addictive, designed them to be so, and resisted efforts to change those features.

UK Government Response

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has indicated that the US verdict reflects a shift in public mood toward an expectation of more aggressive regulation. On March 26, 2026, Starmer stated that the UK needs to go further to protect children and that the status quo isn’t good enough.

The UK government is currently conducting a consultation to determine the next steps for regulating online harms. Key areas of focus include:

• Setting a minimum age for children to access social media and determining what that age should be.
• Considering a potential ban on social media for users under the age of 16.
• Addressing the addictive features built into social media platforms.

Ministers have noted that social media use among children and adolescents is almost universal and that the proportion of children with profiles has increased significantly over the last five years.

Global Regulatory Context

The UK’s shift toward examining platform architecture follows similar trends in other international markets. The European Union has launched investigations into platform design under the Digital Services Act, and Australia has already introduced tighter rules and restrictions for younger users.

The impact of these platforms is widespread, with research indicating that US teenagers average nearly five hours of social media use per day, while British adults spend approximately three hours daily on these platforms.

The Los Angeles ruling has triggered further legal momentum in the US, with Bergman now representing more than 1,000 other plaintiffs in future cases. Meta is expected to appeal the verdict.