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Responding to a US jury finding that Meta and YouTube were liable for designing platforms that are harmful to children and young people, Erika Guevara-Rosas, Amnesty International’s Senior Director of Research, Advocacy, Policy and Campaigns, said: 

“This damning verdict is a landmark moment in recognizing the harm caused by tech giants in the manipulative designs of their social media platforms. For years, social media companies including Meta and YouTube have profited from targeting children and young people with addictive design features that prioritize engagement over wellbeing. They have deliberately built into their platforms features such as infinite scroll, autoplay, and persistent notifications that are engineered to ‘hook’ young users into compulsive use. 

“The toxic impact of these unsafe design features was laid bare during the trial when 20-year-old KGM told the court in Los Angeles how she began using YouTube at just six and Instagram at nine. She described being online ‘all day long’ as a child. Over time, her compulsive use of these social media platforms intensified, leaving her struggling with addiction and deepening depression. 

“This court decision is clear: these platforms are unsafe by design and meaningful change is urgently needed. 

Erika Guevara-Rosas, Amnesty International’s Senior Director of Research, Advocacy, Policy and Campaigns

“Rather than using blunt tools like banning young teens from social media, states must require a fundamental overhaul of how these platforms operate, including addressing their addictive design. This is the only path to a truly safe social media.” 

Background 
 
Delivering the landmark judgement in KGM’s case, jurors said Meta and YouTube were negligent and ordered them to pay $6 million in damages. Meta and Google have both both stated separately that they disagree with the verdict and will appeal.  

Snap, the owner of Snapchat and TikTok were initially part of the case, but both companies reached a settlement before trial. 

The ruling could influence a raft of other cases accusing social media companies of causing children and young people harm. 
 
In a separate case in New Mexico, a jury also found Meta liable for harms to the mental health and safety of children in the state and ordered it to pay a hefty fine though Meta has indicated that it will appeal the decision. 

The post USA: Landmark YouTube and Meta social media ruling must lead to design changes to guarantee online safety appeared first on Amnesty International.

Responding to the European Parliament’s vote on its position on the European Union (EU) Return Regulation today, Eve Geddie, Director of Amnesty International’s European Institutions Office, said:

“Today the European Parliament has voted to expand the EU’s punitive and restrictive detention and deportation plans. This agreement – the result of a collaboration between the European People’s Party and political groups that support anti-migration policies – was rushed through negotiations without adequate scrutiny or meaningful human rights assessments.

“This marks a growing trend towards increasingly harmful, exclusionary, and draconian policies on migration, with worrying repercussions for due process and evidence-based policymaking. Far from reducing irregularity, these proposals risk trapping more people in precarious situations.

“Today, the European Parliament has voted to ramp up disproportionate requirements, sanctions and restrictions on people issued with a return decision, and to vastly expand its use of detention and for far longer periods, falling short of international legal standards.

“People will also risk being sent to ‘return hubs’ – offshore detention centres – in countries where they have never set foot. Amnesty International is unequivocal: return hubs carry grave risks of rights violations, cannot be implemented in a human rights compliant manner, and should be rejected in full.”

Background

The European Commission presented a proposal for a Return Regulation to replace the existing Return Directive in March 2025. In December 2025, Amnesty International warned that the European Council’s negotiating position on this proposal entailed “unprecedented detention, sanctions, and stripping of rights based on migration status.”

On 9 March 2026, the European Parliament’s Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) Committee adopted its position on the Return Regulation. This followed rushed negotiations and votes on two different texts, including an alternative compromise by the European People’s Party with support from the European Conservatives and Reformists, Europe of Sovereign Nations and Patriots for Europe. It was this text that both received the LIBE Committee’s final support and was endorsed today as Parliament’s negotiating position on the reform.

Today’s vote paves the way for trilogue negotiations with the Council before the Regulation can be formally adopted. These are expected to advance quickly.

For further information please see:

Joint statement over 200 civil society organizations calling for deportation rules to be rejected

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