Dana Taylor

These are test cases meant to guide how the remaining lawsuits are resolved.

The first case is being called the KGM case to maintain the plaintiff's anonymity.

Can you tell me about that case, Clay?

The courts have dismissed many similar lawsuits in the past.

What legal arguments or evidence here convinced a judge to let these cases proceed?

Clay, how significant is this shift in theory for product liability law?

Plaintiffs are borrowing language and strategy from tobacco and opioid litigation from a legal historian's perspective.

Where do those comparisons stand firm and where do they break down?

You touched on this, but I want to make sure that I'm clear.

One of the biggest hurdles for plaintiffs here is causation.

What do they have to prove to convince a jury that platform design directly contributed to harming a user?

As you mentioned, two companies, Snap and TikTok, chose to settle this first case rather than go to trial.

Legally speaking, Clay, how did those settlements shape the remaining cases, even if they don't create precedent on paper?

Social media companies warn that these cases could weaken longstanding legal protections for their platforms.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri could both be called to testify.

What else are they saying?

Finally, is there a chance this trial could open the door to broader regulation through the courts, effectively doing what Congress has struggled or some might say failed to do legislatively?

Clay, thank you so much for joining me on the excerpt.

Thanks to our senior producer, Kaylee Monahan, for production assistance, our executive producers, Laura Beatty.

Let us know what you think of this episode by sending a note to podcasts at usatoday.com.