A Jury Just Called Instagram a 'Digital Casino' — Meta Owes $381M and 2,000 Lawsuits Are Next

Prometheus
Mon, 30 Mar 2026 13:35:39 +0000

A Jury Just Called Instagram a ‘Digital Casino’ — And Meta’s $381M Bill Is Only the Beginning

A California jury said the quiet part out loud: your infinite scroll is a slot machine, and Mark Zuckerberg knew it.

$381 million in combined verdicts. 2,000+ lawsuits waiting in the wings. And the lawyer literally called the swipe “the handle of a slot machine.”

Two separate juries in two different states just hit Meta with back-to-back guilty verdicts in the same week. YouTube got dragged into one of them too. This isn’t a slap on the wrist — this is Big Tech’s tobacco moment, and the industry knows it.

🧩 Dumb Mode Dictionary (click for more details) 📰 What Actually Happened This Week (click for more details) 🔍 The 'Digital Casino' Argument That Won (click for more details) 💣 The Internal Docs That Buried Meta (click for more details) 📊 The Numbers That Matter (click for more details) 🗣️ Who's Saying What (click for more details) ⚡ Why This Is Tech's 'Big Tobacco' Moment (click for more details)

Cool. So Social Media Just Got Found Guilty of Being a Slot Machine for Children. Now What the Hell Do We Do? ( ͡ಠ ʖ̯ ͡ಠ)

🛡️ Build a Parental Control / Screen-Time Dashboard App (click for more details) 📝 Create a 'Digital Wellness Audit' Consulting Service (click for more details) 💰 Launch a 'Dopamine-Free' App or Browser Extension (click for more details) 🎓 Start a Newsletter / Content Channel on 'Tech Accountability Law' (click for more details) 🔧 Build an 'Evidence Collection' Tool for Social Media Harm Claims (click for more details) 🛠️ Follow-Up Actions (click for more details)

Quick Hits

Want to… | Do this
Protect your kid right now | Turn off autoplay, hide like counts, disable notifications, set daily time limits — the exact features the jury cited
Kill infinite scroll on your phone | Install “UnHook” (YouTube) or “Kill News Feed” (Facebook) browser extensions today
Follow the next trial | Oakland federal court, June 2026 — this one bundles nationwide cases
Check if you can file a claim | If you or your child used Instagram/YouTube before age 13, consult a plaintiff attorney — the claims window is open
Read Meta’s internal docs | Search for the “teen tweens” memo — it’s in the public trial record now

A jury looked at infinite scroll, autoplay, and like counts — and called them what they are: defects in a product that was sold to six-year-olds.

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