Big Tech's Big Tobacco Moment

Big Tech's Big Tobacco Moment

From Offline with Jon Favreau by Crooked Media

April 4, 2026 · 59 min · Episode 229

About this episode

The episode discusses the accountability of Big Tech through lawsuits related to mental health impacts of social media.

Mark Zuckerberg is finally being held accountable–not by government regulators, board members or shareholders, but by two lawsuits. Tech journalist Casey Newtown, editor of Platformer , joins Offline to explain how a young woman in California beat Meta and Google on the grounds that Instagram and YouTube had destroyed her mental health. Jon and Casey discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the case, whether losing end-to-end encryption could lead to a surveillance state, and what happens if social platforms’ defensive shield, Section 230, is overturned. Then Jon speaks to New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez about his successful lawsuit against Meta, how the social media company plans to appeal it, and whether the case he’s made could ultimately lead the Supreme Court to regulate this 21st century addiction. For a closed-captioned version of this episode, click here . For a transcript of this episode, please email transcripts@crooked.com and include the name of the podcast.

People in this episode

Host: Jon Favreau

Guests: Casey Newtown, Raúl Torrez

Topics covered

  • Big Tech accountability
  • mental health
  • lawsuits
  • social media regulation
  • encryption
  • Section 230

Keywords

  • Big Tech
  • lawsuits
  • mental health
  • social media
  • encryption
  • Section 230
  • Meta
  • Google
  • Instagram
  • YouTube

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Platformer, Meta, Google, Instagram, YouTube, Supreme Court, Crooked Media

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