I'm Marissa Wong, Internet Lawfare, with an episode from the Lawfare

for April 5, 2006.

On March 25, the jury in a landmark lawsuit found social media companies meta and YouTube

liable for harm caused to user's mental health because of their addictive algorithms and design

features. The Bellwether case could open social media companies to more lawsuits over their

algorithms and its effects on users' well-being. For today's archive,

I chose an episode from March 14, 2025, in which Renee DeResta sat down with Glenn Wheel,

Yaakov Machengama, and Ravi Ayer to unpack how social media algorithms shape user interaction

through processes designed to be invisible and opaque to users.

The group also discussed how new, decentralized platforms are attempting to design pro-social media

platforms for a more positive future.

It's the Lawfare podcast. I'm Renee Duresta, contributing editor at Lawfare and associate research professor at Georgetown McCourt School of Public Policy.

I'm with Glenn Weil, economist and author at Microsoft Research.

Jakob Muchmgama, executive director of the Future of Free Speech Project at Vanderbilt

University, and Ravi Ayer, managing director of the USC Marshall School, Neli Center.

I just think no matter what our goals are, the design of sort of the overall information ecosystem and what gets surfaced is critical.

Today we're talking about design versus moderation. The way that social media platforms are built

influences everything from what we see to what is amplified to what is even created in

the first place, as users

respond to incentives, nudges, and affordances. These processes are often invisible or opaque,

though new decentralized platforms are changing that. So we're going to talk designing a pro-social

media for the future and the potential for an online world without Caesars.

...