American lawyer Matthew Bergman is in the news these days because of his legal campaign against the harm caused by social media to children. He is the founder of the Social Media Victims Law Centre. In the last week of August, Meta agreed to a settlement of $ 18 billion, or about Rs 1.70 lakh crore, to settle the cases filed by dozens of US states. These lawsuits allege that social media addiction is endangering the mental health and safety of teenagers. Bergman has been deeply involved in the proceedings of this main lawsuit. According to Bergman, Meta has consistently argued that its platforms do not make people addicted. The company’s argument has been that if any harm is caused to the children then the children or their parents are responsible for it. In contrast, Bergman says that social media companies should be held accountable for the risks associated with their products. Almost all of Bergman’s time is now spent on lawsuits against social media companies. In the US, Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act largely exempts digital companies from legal responsibility for the content on their platforms. This provision has long been a major hurdle for parents, lawyers and victim families. Bergman has adopted a different legal path against this. Over the past four years, Bergman has fought cases against major social media companies, including Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat. He is involved in about 1,500 cases involving more than four thousand clients. Bergman, who grew up in Seattle, earned a law degree after graduating in 1986. He started his career with a big law firm in Seattle. Initially he was a lawyer for an asbestos company. He later formed the Pacific Northwest Company, which fought cases to obtain compensation for asbestos victims. In 2021, he launched the Social Media Law Center, which focuses on social media cases involving child harm. Bergman compares social media companies to asbestos companies. He says asbestos companies were aware of the dangers of their products, yet hid evidence and distorted scientific information. According to him, social media companies are also facing similar questions.
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