An attorney for more than two dozen states told a California federal jury during opening statements Tuesday that Meta hid what it knew about social media's mental health harms and prioritized profits over safety in a yearslong effort to hook kids on its platforms, while Meta defended its safety practices as best-in-class.
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Cybersecurity & Privacy
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 19, 2026 Law360 iOS App Law360 Android App Follow Law360 on Facebook Follow Law360 on LinkedIn Follow Law360 on Twitter

TOP NEWS

'Profits Won': States Say Meta Targeted Kids As Trial Opens

By Dorothy Atkins

An attorney for more than two dozen states told a California federal jury during opening statements Tuesday that Meta hid what it knew about social media's mental health harms and prioritized profits over safety in a yearslong effort to hook kids on its platforms, while Meta defended its safety practices as best-in-class.

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Zuckerberg Waved Off Filter Criticism, Tenn. Jury Hears

By Cara Salvatore

A former Meta executive overseeing responsible innovation testified Tuesday that Mark Zuckerberg iced out her thoughts regarding the harm to teens of cosmetic surgery image filters, but said generally the company's employees are well intentioned when it comes to user safety.

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Publishers Target Google's 'Fake Privilege' In Ad Tech MDL

By Bryan Koenig

A group of website publishers targeting Google's advertising placement technology dominance in a wider multidistrict litigation asked a New York federal judge Monday to force discovery into corporate policies allegedly hiding evidence that have continuously haunted the technology giant across antitrust cases from government and private plaintiffs.

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Attys In Ebay Harassment Suit Seek Lion's Share Of $15M Fee

By Julie Manganis

Counsel for a Massachusetts couple who recently reached a $55.7 million settlement over a harassment campaign by former eBay employees have asked a state court judge to find the couple's original attorney is entitled to no more than 5% of the fees in the case.

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RISING STARS

Rising Star: Keker's Christina Lee

By Steven Lerner

Christina Lee of Keker Van Nest & Peters LLP secured several defense wins in a wave of privacy litigation targeting new technologies, including high-profile class actions in the past year for companies like LinkedIn and Google, earning her a spot among the cybersecurity and privacy law practitioners under age 40 honored by Law360 as Rising Stars.

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POLICY & REGULATION

NJ Justices Signaled Likely End To Daniel's Law, Experts Say

By George Woolston

First Amendment experts said the New Jersey Supreme Court likely doomed the state's judicial privacy law when it found that the statute did not require those seeking damages to establish mental state, a decision that the Third Circuit hinted could result in the measure being struck down.

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ENFORCEMENT

Feds Bring New Charges Over $3.4B Iran-Backed Cybertheft

By Stewart Bishop

Manhattan federal prosecutors on Tuesday announced new charges against a group of Iranians accused of running a global, state-backed hacking campaign against private companies, government agencies and universities, in a wide-ranging cybertheft conspiracy that stole at least $3.4 billion in academic data and intellectual property.

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Calif. Says Academy Mortgage Must Pay Data Breach Penalty

By Isaac Monterose

Residential mortgage lender and servicer Academy Mortgage Corp. must pay a penalty for a March 2023 consumer data breach that impacted more than 34,000 Californians, the state's Department of Financial Protection and Innovation announced.

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LITIGATION

Microsoft Harvests K-12 Student Data, Class Action Claims

By Ben Adlin

Microsoft Corp.'s partnerships with K-12 schools in Washington have allowed the technology giant to collect and profit from swaths of personal student data in violation of state and federal law, according to a proposed class action filed by four minor students who attend public schools in Spokane, Washington.

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Sofia Vergara's Underwear Co. Moves To Nix AI Deepfake Suit

By Gina Kim

EBY urged a California federal judge to dismiss a content creator's suit alleging that, while she agreed to be a brand ambassador, the underwear company used AI to create a "deepfake" version and publish a video where she appeared partially nude, arguing Monday that the video is not "pornography" as commonly understood.

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7th Circ. Says Resort Co. Waited Too Long For TCPA Suit Arb.

By Gina Kim

The Seventh Circuit on Tuesday concluded Club Exploria's conduct in a long-running Telephone Consumer Protection Act case was inconsistent with its intent to arbitrate as it waited four years to raise arbitration and finding its decision to hire new lawyers "late in the game cannot excuse prior counsel's lack of diligence."

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Troutman Sidelined Associate After Heart Attack, Suit Says

By Patrick Hoff

Troutman Pepper Locke LLP derailed an associate's career because he took medical leave to recover from a heart attack and spoke up about senior attorneys' fraudulent billing practices, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday in New Jersey federal court.

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Property Management Co. Hit With Suit Over Data Breach

By Isaac Monterose

A proposed class of consumers accused property management company Cambridge Management Inc. on Tuesday of failing to protect their personally identifiable information from hackers who breached the company's systems.

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Snap Says Pixel Suit Refiled To Avoid Skeptical Calif. Judge

By Allison Grande

Snap is pushing to move a proposed pixel-tracking class action from federal court in Los Angeles to San Francisco, arguing that the dispute "bears all the hallmarks of strategic forum selection designed to avoid" litigating in front of a Northern District of California judge who's called the state's wiretap statute "a total mess."

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PEOPLE

Jackson Lewis Atty Appointed Privacy, AI Lead Of L&E Global

By Matt Perez

Labor and employment firm Jackson Lewis PC announced Tuesday that its attorney Mary T. Costigan was appointed co-leader of data protection and artificial intelligence at L&E Global, an alliance affiliated with Jackson Lewis.

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Barnes & Thornburg Picks Up 12 K&L Gates Healthcare Attys

By Tracey Read

Barnes & Thornburg LLP announced Tuesday that it has brought on a 12-lawyer healthcare team from K&L Gates, including that firm's two former practice group leaders.

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EXPERT ANALYSIS

AI Chatbot's Medical Claims Highlight Enforcement Risks

The Pennsylvania State Board of Medicine's recent lawsuit against Character Technologies, arguing that an artificial intelligence chatbot engaged in the unlicensed practice of medicine, may provide other state licensing boards with a road map for going after AI platforms, and counsel should advise clients to calibrate compliance accordingly, say attorneys at Cooley.

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LEGAL INDUSTRY

How Does In-House Pay Compare? Take The Law360 Survey

How do in-house salaries vary across industries, roles, and organizational revenue? What compensation tools are companies using to lure top talent? Help Law360 Pulse answer these questions and more in this year's In-House Compensation Survey.

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White House Aims To Shield Advisers Behind Law Firm EOs

By Emily Sawicki

The Trump administration and Justice Department "strongly object" to an Aug. 3 discovery order requiring them to name individuals involved in drafting and approving executive orders targeting law firms, amid their repeated refusal to hand over certain communications in a suit brought by the American Bar Association.

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Ex-DOJ Atty Says Trump's University Probes Were Political

By Hailey Konnath

Trump administration officials forged ahead with investigations into Harvard, Columbia and other universities despite its own lawyers raising legal concerns and, in some cases, finding "little to no factual predicate justifying opening them," according to a whistleblower disclosure from a former U.S. Department of Justice lawyer made public Tuesday.

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Trump Names 9 Judicial Picks Across 6 States

By Courtney Bublé

President Donald Trump announced nine nominees Tuesday for judicial spots in Florida, Texas, Louisiana, Kentucky, Oklahoma and Alaska. 

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Bot Errors Doom Expert's Credibility In Tainted-Supplement Suit

By Rachel Riley

A Washington federal judge Tuesday disposed of a U.S. Army nurse's lawsuit claiming supplement maker Thesis Nootropics sold products tainted with amphetamines, concluding that a key expert destroyed his credibility by submitting a report containing bot-generated false citations — much like errors for which the plaintiffs' counsel was recently sanctioned.

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Big Tech, PTAB Attys Urge Justices To Fix USPTO Power Grab

By Dani Kass

The Federal Circuit's refusal to curb the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office director's power over instituting Patent Trial and Appeal Board challenges has allowed leaders to "wreak havoc" without accountability, top tech companies have warned the U.S. Supreme Court.

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Quill & Arrow Says Ford Can't Rehash Lemon Law Fee Fights

By Linda Chiem

Quill & Arrow LLP has asked a California federal judge to dump a "retaliatory" lawsuit alleging the personal injury firm saddled Ford Motor Co. with high-priced legal bills for work purportedly handled by virtual assistants overseas or nonlawyers, saying the automaker is trying to chill product liability litigation.

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​​​​​​​Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court

By Jarek Rutz

The Delaware Chancery Court last week tackled disputes involving multibillion-dollar mergers, corporate oversight, founder control, SPAC litigation, commercial contracts and attorney fees.

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LAW FIRMS IN TODAY'S NEWS

Almeida Law Group

Arete Law Group

Ashurst Perkins

Axinn

Ballard Spahr

Barnes & Thornburg

Bradley Arant

Bursor & Fisher

Cleary Gottlieb

Cooley LLP

Covington & Burling

Diller Law

EdTech Law

Emery Reddy

Finkelstein & Partners

Finkelstein Blankinship

Freshfields

Haynes Boone

Hecht Partners

Jackson Lewis PC

Jassy Vick

K&L Gates

Kasowitz LLP

Keesal Young

Keker Van Nest & Peters

Kellogg Hansen

Kessenick Gamma

Kilpatrick Townsend

King & Spalding

Knight Law Group

Littler Mendelson

Lowell & Associates

Lowenstein Sandler

Manning Gross

Meritz Reddy

Milbank LLP

Murphy Ball Stratton

Nixon Peabody

O'Melveny & Myers

Pashman Stein

Peiffer Wolf

Pillsbury Winthrop

Quill & Arrow

Reese Marketos

Ropes & Gray

Scalli Murphy Law

Sidley Austin

Smith Gambrell

Sterlington PLLC

Strauss Borrelli

Susman Godfrey

Troutman

Wagstaff & Cartmell

Weiner Brodsky

Wigdor LLP

Wilkinson Stekloff

WilmerHale

Wilson Sonsini

Winston Taylor

COMPANIES IN TODAY'S NEWS

Academy Mortgage Corp.

Acushnet Holdings Corp.

Alliance for Automotive Innovation

American Bar Association

Amicus

Apple Inc.

Archer Aviation Inc.

BDO LLP

BDO USA LLP

Cambridge Management Inc.

Cisco Systems Inc.

Clearing House Payments Co. LLC

Cloudflare Inc.

Computer & Communications Industry Association

EchoStar Corp.

Epic Games Inc.

Federation of State Medical Boards of the United States Inc.

Ford Motor Co.

Gannett Co. Inc.

Google LLC

Government Accountability Project

H.I.G. Capital LLC

Harvard University

Home Box Office Inc.

Instagram Inc.

Intel Corp.

Kentucky Downs LLC

LinkedIn Corp.

Los Angeles Times

Meta Platforms Inc.

Microsoft Corp.

NHK Spring

National Retail Federation Inc.

New York Post

OpenAI OpCo LLC

Outliers Inc.

Pinterest Inc.

Roblox Corp.

SAP AG

SAS Institute Inc.

Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.

ServiceTitan Inc.

Snap Inc.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd.

Tesla Inc.

The Boeing Co.

The Software & Information Industry Association

TikTok Inc.

Trove Brands

Verisk Analytics Inc.

YouTube Inc.

eBay Inc.

GOVERNMENT AGENCIES IN TODAY'S NEWS

Austrian Data Protection Authority

California Department of Justice

California Supreme Court

City and County of San Francisco, California

Commonwealth of Kentucky

Commonwealth of Massachusetts

Delaware Court of Chancery

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

European Union

Executive Office of the President

Federal Bureau of Investigation

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

Federal Trade Commission

Food and Drug Administration

National Labor Relations Board

New Jersey Legislature

New Jersey Supreme Court

Patent Trial and Appeal Board

Pennsylvania Department of State

Pennsylvania Supreme Court

Tennessee Attorney General's Office

U.S. Army

U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Massachusetts

U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit

U.S. Department of Commerce

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

U.S. Department of Justice

U.S. Department of Labor

U.S. Department of the Treasury

U.S. District & Bankruptcy Courts of Southern District of Texas

U.S. District Court for the Central District of California

U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska

U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia

U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey

U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky

U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana

U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas

U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia

U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida

U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California

U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas

U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California

U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York

U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

U.S. Senate

U.S. Supreme Court

United Nations

United States District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma