The Colin and Samir Show · Colin and Samir

YouTube, Meta and the case of the Infinite Scroll

March 26, 2026·28 min·2 clips

A California jury just found Meta and YouTube liable for designing addictive apps that harm young users.

The courtroom is where this starts. A California jury found Meta and YouTube liable for negligence and failure to warn, and Colin and Samir treat the verdict as something people who build on social platforms should probably sit with for a minute. The plaintiff is identified only as KGM. She is now 20, and the case centers on the claim that these products were as addictive as cigarettes or digital casinos. That framing does a lot of work. The hosts move from the verdict to the uncomfortable product question underneath it: can social media apps be treated as products that cause personal injuries? Content is not the whole issue. One host says the harder problem is not one upload, but the machinery around it, especially recommendations that keep nudging someone toward the next thing they might like. The feed becomes the part worth arguing over. That lets them draw a useful line between a public television screen, where someone chooses a program, and a phone that is private, portable, and always nearby. Sid's middle-of-the-night Instagram reflex makes the legal idea feel less abstract. The habit loop is already familiar before anyone puts courtroom language around it. Apple sits just outside the case, which the hosts notice. Then they bring in Tim Cook's recent Good Morning America remarks about not wanting people to stare at smartphones more than they look into someone's eyes. The irony is quiet but sharp: the person selling the device is also calling endless scrolling a bad way to spend a day. Even the tech industry's word sticky starts to sound suspicious. The close gets practical, with comments, DMs, tweets, and a turn toward Press Publish LA on May 28 as a chance to put the phone down and talk in person.

As heard by us

A creator-economy read on social media liability, attention engineering, and the platform risk behind audience growth.

A California jury's negligence finding against Meta and YouTube gives Colin and Samir a business story with real platform risk at its center. They frame the case around a now 20-year-old plaintiff, identified as KGM, who argued that social apps were designed to be addictive for…

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