A Meta safety executive admitted Monday to a Tennessee jury that she cannot "rule out" that addiction may occur with Instagram but said she believes that so far there is no evidence to identify anything beyond "problematic use."
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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

Meta Exec Can't 'Rule Out' Addiction But Doubts It, Jury Told

By Cara Salvatore

A Meta safety executive admitted Monday to a Tennessee jury that she cannot "rule out" that addiction may occur with Instagram but said she believes that so far there is no evidence to identify anything beyond "problematic use."

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Pornhub To Pay $120M To End Child Abuse Content Cases

By Dorothy Atkins

The companies behind adult entertainment website Pornhub have agreed to make extensive policy changes and pay $120 million to end certified class claims in California and Alabama by child sex trafficking and sexual abuse material survivors who allege the website profited from crimes committed against them.

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Meta Loses 'Hail Mary' Sanctions Bid On Eve Of AGs' Trial

By Dorothy Atkins

A California federal judge Sunday denied Meta's request for spoliation sanctions against state attorneys general that would've barred a Meta whistleblower from testifying in the upcoming high-stakes social media addiction bellwether trial, ruling that Meta's request was an "obvious" "Hail Mary attempt to eliminate a strong witness" before trial.

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Google To Pay $10M For Spirit Airlines Data To Help AI Models

By Alex Wittenberg

Technology giant Google LLC has won an auction for Spirit Airlines' emails, chats, spreadsheets and other data, offering $10 million for anonymized information it will use to improve its large language models and other products, according to a notice filed Friday in New York bankruptcy court.

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Law Firm's Challenge To 2021 Statute Falls Short, Judge Says

By Kelcey Caulder

A Georgia federal judge on Monday dismissed a lawsuit brought by an attorney and his firm alleging a 2021 law designed to combat money laundering could force the attorney to violate attorney-client privilege, finding the plaintiffs had failed to allege any concrete injury that would empower them to pursue the case. 

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Experts See Looming Legal Disputes Over FCC Party Balance

By Christopher Cole

The U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision to ditch case law shielding independent federal agency members from presidential removal is unlikely to resolve ongoing controversy over White House control of the Federal Communications Commission, experts said Monday.

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RISING STARS

Rising Star: Eimer Stahl's Collin Vierra

By Adrian Cruz

Eimer Stahl LLP's Collin Vierra served as discovery counsel for Tennessee in its landmark suit against social media giant Meta Platforms Inc. over Instagram's alleged harmful effects on youth, earning him a spot among the cybersecurity and privacy lawyers under age 40 honored by Law360 as Rising Stars.

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ENFORCEMENT

Justices Won't Reconsider Verizon's $47M FCC Fine

By Nadia Dreid

The U.S. Supreme Court is not interested in reconsidering how it worded its June opinion upholding the Federal Communications Commission's authority to issue monetary penalties, despite Verizon arguing that the ruling left it between a rock and a hard place concerning the $47 million fine it already paid.

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Calif. AG Pans Bid To Pause Social Media Algorithm Limits

By Craig Clough

The California attorney general urged a federal judge to deny requests from TikTok, Meta and Google to block enforcement of a state law barring them from using algorithms to deliver feeds to children, saying the court already denied a preliminary injunction and should not grant one pending the companies' appeal.

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LITIGATION

Standing Flaw Sinks Chrysler Website Tracking Row, For Now

By Allison Grande

A California federal judge has tossed, with leave to amend, a proposed class action accusing automaker FCA of illegally divulging Chrysler website visitors' personal information to a data broker, finding that the plaintiff had failed to establish the type of concrete injury necessary to sustain her wiretap and privacy claims.

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2nd Circ. Says Public Can Film Police And Their Stations

By Brian Steele

The Second Circuit said Monday it has joined "a growing chorus of our sister circuits" in finding a constitutional right to record law enforcement activity in public, as well as police buildings, but still turned away a self-described First Amendment auditor's lawsuit over his arrest while filming the exterior of a Connecticut police station.

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Apple Hit With Derivative Suit Over AI Copyright Infringement

By Hailey Konnath

Apple executives and directors are facing a stockholder derivative action claiming they've been knowingly using copyrighted materials to develop Apple's artificial intelligence services — an unlawful business strategy they knew could lead to litigation from copyright holders, the plaintiff told a California federal court.

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JPMorgan Loses State Trade Secret Claims In Data Suit

By Ivan Moreno

JPMorgan Chase Bank cannot pursue state law trade secret claims against a data analytics company over the alleged misuse of credit card data supplied for regulatory purposes, with a Delaware federal judge ruling Monday that the bank still hasn't tied that conduct to Delaware or Ohio.

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Brief

Judge Orders Stay In Ex-Defense Contractor Execs' Suit

By Rachel Konieczny

A Colorado federal magistrate judge partially granted on Monday a defense contractor's bid for a stay in two former executives' case against it that claimed the contractor fired them for reporting a $1.9 million fraud scheme on a classified government contract.

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PEOPLE

Debevoise Hires 2 Former Davis Polk Attorneys For AI Practice

By Matt Perez

Debevoise & Plimpton LLP announced on Monday the hiring of two former Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP lawyers as counsel focused on artificial intelligence in New York and Washington, D.C.

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EXPERT ANALYSIS

7th Circ. Ruling May Reduce Litigation Risk For Text Marketers

The recent Seventh Circuit holding in Steidinger v. Blackstone Medical Services that unwanted marketing text messages are not telephone calls under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act may strengthen companies' responses to presuit demand letters and early-stage litigation claims premised on do-not-call text theories, say attorneys at Holland & Knight.

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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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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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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

Arete Law Group

Ashurst Perkins

Cleary Gottlieb

Cooley LLP

Covington & Burling

Davis Polk

Debevoise & Plimpton

Eimer Stahl

Gibson Dunn

Haynes Boone

Holland & Knight

Jenner & Block

Kasowitz LLP

Kellogg Hansen

Kilpatrick Townsend

Klein Thomas

Knight Law Group

Law Offices of Ruth I. Major

Littler Mendelson

Manning Gross

Milbank LLP

Mintz Levin

Morgan Lewis

Morris Nichols

Murphy Ball Stratton

O'Melveny & Myers

Pollock Cohen

Quill & Arrow

Quinn Emanuel

Spizzirri Law

Sterlington PLLC

Susman Godfrey

Tauler Smith

Troutman

Wagstaff & Cartmell

Wigdor LLP

Wilkinson Stekloff

WilmerHale

Wollmuth Maher

COMPANIES IN TODAY'S NEWS

AT&T Inc.

Acushnet Holdings Corp.

Adobe Inc.

Alliance for Automotive Innovation

Amazon.com Inc.

American Bar Association

American Civil Liberties Union

Amicus

Apple Inc.

Archer Aviation Inc.

Argus Information & Advisory Services LLC

AtriCure, Inc.

BDO LLP

BDO USA LLP

Chevron Corp.

Cisco Systems Inc.

Clearing House Payments Co. LLC

Clearview AI

Cloudflare Inc.

Computer & Communications Industry Association

EchoStar Corp.

FCA US LLC

Ford Motor Co.

Fordham University

George Washington University

Google LLC

Government Accountability Project

H.I.G. Capital LLC

Harvard University

Instagram Inc.

Intel Corp.

JPMorgan Chase & Co.

JetBlue Airways Corp.

Kentucky Downs LLC

LiveRamp

McKesson Corp.

Meta Platforms Inc.

Microsoft Corp.

NHK Spring

National Retail Federation Inc.

New York Post

OpenAI OpCo LLC

Outliers Inc.

Pinterest Inc.

Reddit Inc.

Roku Inc.

SAP AG

SAS Institute Inc.

Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.

ServiceTitan Inc.

Snap Inc.

Spirit Airlines Inc.

Stanford University

T-Mobile US Inc.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd.

Tesla Inc.

The Boeing Co.

The Software & Information Industry Association

The Western Union Co.

TikTok Inc.

TransUnion LLC

Verisk Analytics Inc.

Verizon Communications Inc.

Wayfair LLC

YouTube Inc.

GOVERNMENT AGENCIES IN TODAY'S NEWS

California Attorney General's Office

California Supreme Court

City and County of San Francisco, California

Delaware Court of Chancery

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

Executive Office of the President

Federal Communications Commission

Federal Reserve System

Federal Trade Commission

Food and Drug Administration

National Labor Relations Board

National Reconnaissance Office

Patent Trial and Appeal Board

Tennessee Attorney General's Office

U.S. Army

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

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit

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 Connecticut

U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware

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 Middle District of Florida

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

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

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

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

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission

U.S. Senate

U.S. Supreme Court

United States District Court for the District of Colorado

United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama

United States District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma