How do we know when we’re at a tipping point?
It’s a question we’ve been circling in this newsletter for years:
- In February 2024, during the congressional hearings on online child safety, we asked: “Is this a breaking point or tipping point?”
- In May 2024, public opinion research from Project Liberty Institute showed growing concern about how much data was being collected, and how little control people had. We wondered if shifting public sentiment would be enough.
- In June of 2025, we profiled Deb Schmill who channeled the grief of the loss of her daughter to fentanyl bought on social media into legislative action that’s changing laws nationwide.
- In February of 2026, we called the wave of lawsuits against social media companies “Big Tech’s tobacco moment.”
Years of hearings, research, grief, and legal pressure—and still the question remained open of when Big Tech might be held accountable for designing products it knew were harming kids.
Last week, a California jury might have answered it. It found Meta and YouTube legally liable for harming a young woman through addictive product design—the first verdict of its kind. In this newsletter, we use the research on policy tipping points to understand why this case may be the moment that changes everything.
