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working toward a healthy, resilient, secure world for all. On the web at theshmit.org.

Live from NPR News, I'm Lakshmi Singh. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is testifying today in a state court trial in Los Angeles that could reshape social media. At issue is whether social media companies are legally responsible for young people's addiction to companies' products such as Instagram and Facebook. And P.S. Bobby Allen is covering Zuckerberg's testimony.

Social media companies have used a legal shield known as Section 230 to avoid all sorts of legal

consequences of what people post to their sites. It's been described as an impenetrable fortress for

Silicon Valley. But in recent years, plaintiff's lawyers have gotten pretty creative,

and they are now suing tech companies under product liability law to say, you know what,

these platforms are essentially defective products like a defective car or a defective toaster,

and that meta and Google, the equivalent of a manufacturer, should be held liable.

NPR is Bobby Allen. In the aftermath of yesterday's avalanche near Lake

Tahoe in California, authorities confirmed today eight skiers are dead. A crew is still searching for one

person. The ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee led a group of Democrats to

Odessa, a key Ukrainian port that has been hard hit in Russia's war against Ukraine.

NPR's Michelle Kellerman reports that the U.S. lawmakers say American businesses are being hit, too.

Senator Gene Chehien says she and her colleagues met with American business leaders in Odessa who have faced Russian attacks.

Richard Blumenthal, another Senate Democrat, puts it this way.

It's open season on American business. There are about 600 major businesses here.

Nearly half of them have been directly and purposefully attacked. The American people deserve to

know that Putin is targeting American businesses.

He's also pushing for more sanctions, saying countries that are buying Russian gas should be given,

quote, strong incentives to stop.

Michelle Kellerman and PR News, the State Department.

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