The Trial of Social Media
The Trial
The Crime Desk
4.2 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 20 February 2026
⏱️ 56 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this episode Caroline and Liz get an insight from a lawyer with a ringside seat of the moment this week when Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg walked into a US courtroom to face the users of his platform who say using social media ruined their lives. They claim he knew the technology was addictive and it was part of his business model to make money at the expense of the mental health of a generation of young people. The case is likely to have huge implications in the UK so we also get the thoughts of Esther Ghey, who has campaigned tirelessly to better protect young people online, since the death of her daughter Brianna three years ago.
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Presenter: Caroline Cheetham and Liz Hull
Producer: Chelsey Ranore
Creative Director: Caroline Cheetham
Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini
Guests: Matthew Bergman and Esther Ghey
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The Trial series uses actors and some voices generated by AI. Their words are taken as verbatim from the official court transcript.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the trial UK. I'm Caroline Cheatham. |
| 0:09.2 | And I'm Liz Hull. |
| 0:10.7 | Today on the podcast, we're looking at a trial that's creating a heck of a stir on the other side of the world in California, in America. |
| 0:18.8 | And we're looking at it because it could have implications |
| 0:23.0 | in the UK, specifically for parents and children in the UK. It's the first of many of what's |
| 0:29.9 | being called bellwether or test cases, where the parents of kids, and also kids who've now |
| 0:37.2 | grown up, who've been harmed by what they've |
| 0:40.3 | seen online, well, they're all taking on the social media giants in court in front of a jury. |
| 0:48.2 | Yeah, so over the past couple of weeks, some of the biggest names in Silicon Valley, |
| 0:53.3 | the tech bros, as they're sometimes known, |
| 0:56.1 | people like the head of Instagram have all been giving evidence. |
| 0:59.6 | But this week was significant because Metas Mark Zuckerberg was in court |
| 1:03.5 | to defend some of the decisions the company have taken. |
| 1:07.6 | And it was quite a moment as he went into court on Wednesday, |
| 1:10.4 | surrounded by loads of |
| 1:11.6 | security officers and obviously cameras from the press and journalists. And just to get an |
| 1:18.2 | understanding of why this case could be so important, we're going to be talking to Matthew Bergman, |
| 1:23.9 | and he's one of the lawyers representing some of the plaintiffs or claimants as they're called in |
| 1:28.8 | the UK. Yeah, we're also going to be chatting to the lovely Esther Jai. Of course, the mother of |
| 1:34.1 | Brianna, who has thrown all her energy and then even more, into campaigning really hard for |
| 1:41.3 | better regulation of social media firms in this country |
| 1:44.3 | since her daughter's death three years ago. |
... |
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