Tech Giants Face Their Big Tobacco Moment
Eric Guyer
1 min read
March 2026
Could be my own algorithmically curated echo chamber, but the outcomes of the Meta and Google lawsuits strike me as painfully obvious. I've even read that #GLP1s have shown efficacy in calming the #dopamine release associated with social media.
Adjusted for inflation, the Master Settlement Agreement against big tobacco in 1998 would be $500B here in 2026. There are thousands of pending cases against the social media companies, so presumably we are headed towards a similar, consolidated civil outcome.
And of course, as a recovering doomerist, I'm compelled to suggest that we won't have decades to finally admit #AI presents ill-effects that require regulation of the companies building it. I hope our robot overlords can rule against their own interests 😉