March 26, 2026

Have you seen this news yet?

In less than 24 hours this week, two separate juries found Meta and YouTube liable for deliberately designing platforms that harmed children, and ordered Meta to pay $375 million in a separate case brought by New Mexico. Two verdicts. Two historic firsts. It's not an overstatement to call this a turning point.

But I don't just want to talk about the verdicts. I want to talk about how this happened, because if you're out there fighting a hard fight right now and wondering if it's ever going to matter, I need you to read this.

Our team has been incredibly honored to partner with Heat Initiative, an organization that has been relentlessly fighting to hold Big Tech accountable for the harm its platforms cause children, and I have learned so much from the fearless leaders who've been fighting this fight for many years.

There was nothing inevitable about this moment. These are people who were having these conversations in small conference rooms when the world wasn't paying attention and when the odds were long. When the wins were nowhere in sight. When it would have been completely reasonable to wonder if any of it was working.

They never flinched. They never compromised. They just kept going — with a clarity of purpose and an integrity that I find genuinely rare and inspiring.

And this week, they're on the front page of the Washington Post.

That arc, from small rooms to national headlines, from dismissed to undeniable, is one of the most powerful things I've witnessed, and it's a blueprint. For anyone fighting something that feels too big, too entrenched, or too slow, and for anyone who has sat in a room and wondered if the right people are ever going to listen...

They listened. Twice. In 24 hours.

This work has been personal for me from the start, and not just because I work in social media. I have a son, and I think about his digital safety frequently. Every parent I know does. For a long time it felt like we were shouting into a void — like these companies were untouchable and the evidence of harm just didn't matter.

These verdicts say otherwise. And they say it loudly. 🔥

But, as Lily Rhodes (CoFounder of Heat Initiative) said in her post yesterday, there's still a long way to go. Meta's stock went UP after one of the verdicts. The fines are a rounding error for trillion-dollar companies. Legal accountability is necessary but not sufficient. The work continues, and the people leading it know that better than anyone.

But here's what I also know: movements reach critical mass before they reach victory, and this week feels unmistakably like critical mass.

If you're in the middle of a long fight right now — if you're tired, if progress feels impossibly slow, if you're not sure the needle is moving — let this week be your reminder. It moves. Keep going.

For the survivors who carried this, for the advocates who refused to let it go, and for every leader out there who is still in the room, still pushing, and still believing it's possible...

It is.

For more updates on this, follow Heat Initiatives's leaders on LinkedIn: Sarah Gardner, Lily Rhodes, and Lennon Torres.

You're doing amazing things, and the world needs to know about them.

Keep fighting!

Brynne

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