“They’re holding our children hostage, and they’re seeking and preying on them,” said Kathleen Spence during a recent 60 Minutes episode. This stark revelation is at the heart of the battle being waged by Matthew Bergman ’89, a prominent attorney who founded the Social Media Victims Litigation Center (SMVLC) and represents Spence and her family.
Bergman and SMVLC represents thousands of such families. He is leading the charge against social media giants and holding them responsible for the severe mental health consequences their platforms have on young users. His work, and the parents who are his clients, were featured on the 60 Minutes episode, which aired last fall. But long before attracting the national media spotlight, Bergman’s fight was rooted in childhood inspiration and a deep-seated commitment to advocacy.
Early Inspiration and Legal Journey
Bergman’s path to becoming an advocate for victims began with his connection to his grandfather, a prominent Seattle lawyer who passed away when Bergman was just a year old. Years later, when Matt turned 12, he discovered his grandfather’s copy of the book, Attorney for the Damned by Clarence Darrow, which sparked a passion for law and advocacy that would shape his life’s work. Following his grandfather’s legacy,
Bergman pursued a career in law, focusing on protecting vulnerable populations. His first trial, representing farmworkers, was an early indication of his commitment to advocacy and justice. “I was always interested in using the law to help people who couldn’t help themselves,” Bergman recalls. “Reading Darrow’s book and feeling a connection to my grandfather solidified my decision to pursue this path.”
“I was always interested in using the law to help people who couldn’t help themselves.”
For years he represented asbestos victims and gained extensive experience in product liability litigation. As the number of young social media users demonstrating detrimental effects grew, Bergman realized that the issue of social media harm to teens demanded urgent attention and he could apply his experience in product liability to this challenge.
Matthew Bergman
Founding the Social Media Victims Law Center (SMVLC)
“The more families I talked to, the more I saw how dangerous these products were,” Bergman recalls. Inspired by the testimony of Frances Haugen and the U.S. Surgeon General’s report on youth mental health, he saw an opportunity to use his expertise in product liability to hold social media companies accountable.
With support and brainstorming sessions with legal experts like Jordan D. Schnitzer Professor Robert Klonoff, Bergman founded SMVLC to apply product liability principles to force social media companies to prioritize consumer safety, design safer platforms, and protect users from foreseeable harm. “We’re holding social media companies to the same standard as any other product: reasonable care,” Bergman asserts.
Legal Landscape and Challenges
Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act has historically protected social media companies from liability for user-generated content. However, recent rulings suggest that it does not shield them from liability for the design and operation of their platforms. Bergman argues that the statute has been interpreted far afield of its original intent. “It’s not necessary to repeal Section 230,” he explains. “It just needs to be interpreted according to its statutory purposes.”
“Time and time again when [social media companies] have an opportunity to choose between the safety of our kids and profits, they always choose profits.”
Bergman says, “Never in the history of American jurisprudence has a statute been interpreted so contrary to its statutory language and legislative intent. It was created to protect kids, not insulate the companies that harm them.” He emphasizes that the original purposes of Section 230 were to support free enterprise, create a vibrant internet, give people choice in online content, empower parents to protect kids, and facilitate law enforcement.
The most significant legal and logistical challenge for SMVLC has been navigating Section 230’s protections. “Up until now, just getting past the pleading stage was a challenge,” says Bergman. However, recent developments, including the JCCP (Judicial Council Coordination Proceedings) and MDL (Multi-District Litigation) cases, have allowed for meaningful discovery. “The wind is at our back, but we have many stormy seas ahead,” he notes.
Current Lawsuits and Developments
SMVLC is actively engaged in litigation against major social media companies including Meta, Snapchat, TikTok, and Discord. These lawsuits focus on the platforms’ addictive design, exposure to harmful content, and failure to protect young users. For instance, lawsuits against Meta highlight the company’s failure to protect users from harmful content and addictive algorithms. Snapchat faces legal action for algorithmic discrimination and features that prevent parental monitoring. TikTok’s lawsuits focus on addictive algorithms and promotion of harmful content, while Discord is being sued for lack of age verification and exposure to sexually abusive content.
“These platforms are designed to be addictive, keeping users engaged by showing them content that keeps them hooked and scrolling,” Bergman explains. “They keep kids engaged not by showing them what they want to see, but by showing them something they can’t look away from,” leading to a cycle of addiction and further exposure to harmful content.
Trials and Future Impact
The upcoming bellwether trials in the summer of 2025 will be critical in setting a precedent for future cases. They will likely influence future litigation against social media companies, potentially leading to settlements and encouraging platforms to implement safer practices. Bergman believes these trials will provide an opportunity to see how a jury responds to the evidence. “For the first time in history, a social media company will have to stand in front of a jury and testify why it’s okay for them to sell a product that they don’t let their own kids use,” he says.
Impact and Future Goals
Looking ahead, Bergman aims to continue holding social media companies accountable and expanding the scope of litigation to cover more harmful practices. He is particularly focused on cases involving mass shootings and the opioid crisis, as well as the use of AI in social media.
Bergman summed up the multi-faceted approach: “We’re involved in litigation representing survivors of the Buffalo shooting, holding Snapchat liable for the 350% increase in opioid deaths among teens, and focusing on cases that hold companies accountable for facilitating the sexual exploitation and rape of children by predatory adults utilizing AI to create memes to hook kids.” Bergman’s work stands as a beacon of hope for countless families harmed by these platforms. From the classroom to the courtroom, Bergman’s journey exemplifies the power of legal advocacy in creating a safer and more just world. His relentless pursuit of justice serves as an inspiration to current and future generations of lawyers.
“Who’s holding them accountable?”
Families Affected by Social Media
The Spence Family
Kathleen and Jeff Spence, middle school teachers from Long Island, New York, are suing Meta, claiming Instagram led their daughter Alexis into depression and an eating disorder at age 12. “We realized that we were slowly losing her,” Kathleen says. “We really had no comprehension of how severely social media had affected our daughter.”
At 11, Alexis received a cell phone and quickly bypassed parental controls to join Instagram. A search for fitness routines led her to pro-eating disorder content.
“It started as fitness stuff, then diets, and shifted into eating disorders,” Alexis explained. By age 12, Alexis was spending five hours a day on Instagram, feeling depressed and struggling with her mental health.
Her situation escalated when Alexis posted that she didn’t deserve to exist, prompting a friend to alert a school counselor. “That was the scariest day of our lives,” Kathleen recalled. Internal documents later revealed Facebook knew Instagram was pushing harmful content. “When I saw those Facebook papers, it was sickening,” Kathleen says.
The Roberts Family
Englyn Roberts was the youngest in a large family and seemed to be a normal, happy kid to her parents, Toney and Brandy. However, her online life painted a different picture, one dominated by her struggles with self-worth, relationships, and mental health.
One night in August 2020, just hours after Toney and Brandy kissed their 14-year-old daughter goodnight, Brandy received a concerning text from a friend’s parent. “We went upstairs, and we checked, and her door was locked,” Toney recounted. “That was odd, so I took the key from the top, and we opened the door.” Toney found Englyn hanging. “When you find your child hanging, and you are in that moment in disbelief, just no way. Not our baby. Not our child. Ultimately, I fault myself…Because I’m Dad. I’m supposed to know.”
After the Facebook Papers were released, Toney began investigating Englyn’s phone and discovered a video sent by a friend depicting a woman pretending to hang herself. Englyn had copied this method. “If that video wasn’t sent to her, because she copied it, she wouldn’t have had a way of knowing how to do that certain way of hanging yourself,” Brandy added.
Despite Meta’s claims of content moderation, the video remained on Instagram for nearly a year and a half. The Roberts family is now suing Meta, asking, “How could it stay on that site? Part of their policies says they don’t allow for self-harm photos, videos, things of that nature. So who’s holding them accountable?”
“Social media is the silent killer of our children’s generation,” says Toney Roberts. Bergman adds, “If our children are truly our future, what’s the wait? Time and time again when they have an opportunity to choose between the safety of our kids and profits, they always choose profits.”
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