21 November 2025
Social media giants should face tortious liability for the psychological harms their platforms inflict, argues Harry Lambert of Outer Temple Chambers in this week’s NLJ
Platforms, he says, deliberately exploit users’ 'limbic hijacks' to engineer addiction and profit from resulting harms—ranging from depression and body dysmorphia to exploitation.
Drawing analogies with tobacco and gambling, Lambert contends that tortious liability should extend to algorithms designed to manipulate emotion and attention. In detailed examples—including 'Snapchat rape' and online body-image disorders—he explores how legal principles such as the 'creation of danger' doctrine could hold companies accountable.
Citing internal Meta research and whistleblower evidence, Lambert concludes that only litigation can compel Big Tech to redesign its systems: lawyers must make harming users more expensive than changing the algorithm.
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