Why Social Media Companies Don’t Want to be Products  
In 2018, Monsanto was forced to pay Dewayne Johnson $289 million after a jury determined that the weedkiller Roundup had caused his terminal cancer. Johnson received that compensation thanks to a successful product liability suit, which held Monsanto responsible for the harm caused by its dangerous product. Social media companies, in an effort to avoid those same payouts, are now attempting to convince a judge in California that their platforms are not products. Meta, Snap, TikTok, and Google have been flooded with product liability lawsuits from parents who claim that social media addiction has caused measurable harm to their children, ranging from eating disorders to anxiety and depression. These lawsuits take a separate approach from those brought by school districts, which typically rely on state public nuisance laws to argue that tech companies have created a mental health crisis which interferes with the function of public education. Whatever way you slice it, Big Tech is in legal trouble, and families will keep finding ways to press charges until these companies face consequences.