Social Media Victims Law Center (SMVLC) founder Matthew P. Bergman was recently profiled in The Trial Lawyer magazine, which credited him with building the legal framework now used to hold social media companies accountable for the harm their products cause children and teens. The feature, written by Executive Editor Sara G. Stephens, traces the decade-long strategy behind what has become one of the most consequential product liability movements in the country.
From Asbestos Law to Big Tech Accountability
Before founding SMVLC, Bergman spent 30 years representing mesothelioma victims in asbestos litigation. That background in product liability theory became the foundation for a new legal strategy once he turned his attention to social media companies. As the article details, Bergman recognized striking parallels between the two industries: a widely embraced product, a documented cause-and-effect relationship with serious harm, and corporate knowledge of the risks that went undisclosed to the public.
Finding a Path Around Section 230
For years, Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act shielded social media platforms from liability by treating them as neutral hosts of third-party content. Bergman identified a different way forward: arguing that platforms could be held responsible not for what users posted, but for how the products themselves were designed. A 2021 Ninth Circuit ruling in Lemmon v. Snap, combined with whistleblower Frances Haugen’s congressional testimony about Meta’s internal research on youth mental health, confirmed that this product-design approach could succeed where content-based claims had failed.
This became the foundation of the “addiction theory” now central to SMVLC’s litigation: that features like infinite scroll, autoplay, algorithmic recommendations, and variable notifications were deliberately engineered to drive compulsive use in young people, regardless of the psychological cost.
A Strategy Built on Documentation
The article highlights how Bergman and the Social Media Victims Law Center team distinguished itself by filing scholarly, heavily footnoted complaints, some running 160 pages, built around internal corporate documents, prior case law, and firsthand accounts from families. That painstaking approach helped SMVLC’s cases survive early motions to dismiss, a hurdle that had defeated social media litigation for years.
Momentum Across the Country
The Trial Lawyer also points to the broader impact of this strategy: coordinated litigation now unfolding across individual family lawsuits, school district claims, and state attorney general actions. Among the results cited are Meta’s settlement with a Kentucky school district and a landmark $375 million verdict secured by the New Mexico Attorney General against Meta for misleading consumers about platform safety.
That momentum has played out in SMVLC’s own casework as well. In March 2026, a California jury held Meta and YouTube responsible for harm to a young user in a first-of-its-kind trial, awarding $6 million in combined compensatory and punitive damages. As in the cases described in the Trial Lawyer feature, the trial centered on platform design rather than content, with jurors finding that features like infinite scroll, autoplay, and persistent notifications were a substantial factor in the plaintiff’s depression, anxiety, and compulsive use. Bergman called the verdict a “watershed moment” for the movement, noting that it gives families in other jurisdictions a precedent to point to as they pursue their own claims.
What This Means for Families
For the families SMVLC represents, this feature is more than an accolade. It reflects growing recognition, in courtrooms and now in the legal industry’s own press, that social media companies can and should be held to the same standard of reasonable care as any other manufacturer. If you’ve watched your child struggle because of social media, and felt like no one was taking it seriously, this kind of recognition is proof that the work being done on your behalf is gaining real traction, in the courts and beyond.
SMVLC remains committed to this fight. If your family has been affected by social media addiction or harm, you don’t have to navigate it alone.
Request a free case evaluation to learn about your legal options.
