12/02/2026

BIZ & FINANCE THURSDAY | FEB 12, 2026

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YouTube says it is not social media

LOS ANGELES: A lawyer for YouTube insisted on Tuesday that the Google-owned video platform was neither intentionally addictive nor technically social media, as a landmark US trial targeting tech giants entered its second day. YouTube and Meta – the parent company of Instagram and Facebook – are defendants in a blockbuster trial in Los Angeles that could set a legal precedent on whether social media giants deliberately designed their platforms to be addictive to children. o Landmark addiction trial targeting tech giants enters second day

appreciate future consequences,” Lembke testified. “And typically, the gateway drug is the most easily accessible drug,” she said, describing Kaley’s first use of YouTube at the age of six. The case is being treated as a bellwether proceeding whose outcome could set the tone for a wave of similar litigation across the United States. Social media firms face hundreds of lawsuits accusing them of leading young users to become addicted to content and suffer from depression, eating disorders, psychiatric hospitalisation, and even suicide. Lawyers for the plaintiffs are borrowing strategies used in the 1990s and 2000s against the tobacco industry, which faced a similar onslaught of lawsuits arguing that companies knowingly sold a harmful product. – AFP

learn new hobbies or become famous, not to get locked into an infinite scroll, he argued. Li said it was the quality of content that kept users coming back, citing internal company e-mails that he said showed executives rejecting a pursuit of internet virality in favour of educational and more socially useful content. Stanford University School of Medicine professor Anna Lembke, the first witness called by the plaintiffs, testified that she views social media, broadly speaking, as a drug. The part of the brain that acts as a brake when it comes to having another hit is not typically developed before a person is 25 years old, Lembke, the author of the book Dopamine Nation , told jurors. “Which is why teenagers will often take risks that they shouldn’t and not

attorney accused YouTube and Meta of engineering addiction in young people’s brains to gain users and profits. But Li told the six men and six women on the jury that he did not recognise the description of YouTube put forth by the other side and tried to draw a clear line between YouTube’s widely popular video app and social media platforms like Instagram or TikTok. YouTube is selling “the ability to watch something essentially for free on your computer, on your phone, on your iPad”, the lawyer insisted, comparing the service to Netflix or traditional TV. “More people watch YouTube on television than they do on their phones or their devices. More people watch YouTube than cable TV,” Li said. Users also come to the platform to

“It’s not social media addiction when it’s not social media and it’s not addiction,” lawyer Luis Li told the 12 jurors during his opening arguments. The civil trial in California state court centers on allegations that a 20-year-old woman, identified as Kaley G.M., suffered severe mental harm after becoming addicted to social media as a child. She started using YouTube at six and joined Instagram at 11, before moving on to Snapchat and TikTok two or three years later. The plaintiff “is not addicted to YouTube. You can listen to her own words – she said so, her doctor said so, her father said so,” Li said, citing evidence he said would be detailed at trial. Li’s opening arguments followed remarks on Monday from lawyers for the plaintiffs and co-defendant Meta. On Monday, the plaintiffs’

FDA refusing to review mRNA flu shot: Moderna NEW YORK: Vaccine manufacturer Moderna said on Tuesday the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was refusing to review an application for its first mRNA-based flu shot. The move comes as the current iteration of the FDA has called for a reconsideration of approval procedures for certain vaccines, including for influenza – proposed federal policy changes under President Donald Trump that have triggered widespread alarm among public health and medical professionals. Moderna, a US company, said the agency’s top vaccine regulator, Vinay Prasad, wrote in a letter that Moderna’s clinical trial was not “adequate and well-controlled”, and had not tested its experimental shot against the best product on the market. In the large trial, Moderna had compared its new vaccine with Fluarix, an approved flu shot from the company GSK. Moderna said the rejection was “inconsistent with previous written communications” with the FDA branch that regulates biological products, including vaccines, known by the acronym CBER. The decision “did not identify any safety or efficacy concerns with our product” and “does not further our shared goal of enhancing America’s leadership in developing innovative medicines”, Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel said. “It should not be controversial to conduct a comprehensive review of a flu vaccine submission that uses an FDA-approved vaccine as a comparator in a study that was discussed and agreed on with CBER prior to starting.” Moderna said it had received a Refusal-to-File letter, which would indicate the application did not meet the requirements for substantive review. The company said it had requested a meeting to discuss the decision. The letter did not identify any safety or efficacy concerns regarding the mRNA vaccine, said Moderna, which added the shot was accepted for review in the European Union, Canada and Australia. During his first term Trump called mRNA technology a “modern-day miracle”. It was used during the Covid-19 pandemic to swiftly develop an immunisation against the fast-spreading illness, and was credited with saving millions of lives. But in his second term, Trump has appointed Robert F. Kennedy Jr as his health chief, and the long-time vaccine sceptic has spent the past year reshaping federal health agencies in his image. Notably, Kennedy cut off federal research grants that funded mRNA development. – AFP

Trump walks with (from left) Ford executive chairman Bill Ford, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Ford CEO Jim Farley and Ford River Rouge plant manager Corey Williams during the president’s visit to a Ford production centre in

Dearborn, Michigan. – REUTERSPIC

Ford final-quarter results dented by tariffs and supplier outage NEW YORK: Ford reported lower than anticipated fourth-quarter operating results on Tuesday on an unexpectedly large tariff hit and lower vehicle volumes due to a supplier outage. Ford incurred some US$900 million more in tariff costs for 2025 following a late-December determination by Donald Trump’s administration limiting a provision to mitigate levies on imported auto parts. some time in the middle of 2026, she said. “We’ve got people on the ground there and know exactly what is going on and where things stand,” House said on a conference call with reporters.

data centres, energy generation and more. Alphabet allocated US$91 billion to spending on computing infrastructure last year and has told financial analysts it expects to spend from US$175 billion to US$185 billion on it this year. Alphabet has ramped up longterm debt to handle the spending surge, issuing 50-year bonds late last year. While 100-year bonds are not new, it has been decades since US firms have resorted to them. Companies such as Disney, Coca-Cola, FedEx, Ford and Motorola turned to such century-long debt during the 1990s. – AFP “We have contingency plans to secure the sufficient supply for the hot mill from various sources.” While Ford expects some costs associated with Trump’s tariffs to mitigate in 2026, the company anticipates a larger hit from importing aluminum due to levies on the metal, House said. Ford projected 2026 adjusted earnings of between US$8 and US$10 billion, up from US$6.8 billion in 2025 and in line with analyst expectations. – AFP

As a result, Ford ended up with a US$2 billion tariff hit for all of 2025, compared with an earlier forecast of US$1 billion, said chief financial officer Sherry House. Meanwhile, Ford’s sales volumes were dented by a pair of fires at the Novelis Oswego aluminum plant in upstate New York in October and November, resulting in another US$2 billion hit for the year. House said the hot mill at the site is partially operational. The plant is expected to be fully operational

The big US automaker, which had previously signalled a loss for the final quarter of 2025 due to more than US$14 billion in electric vehicle programme write-downs, reported lower than expected earnings when the EV costs were excluded. Ford lost US$11.1 billion on revenues of US$45.9 billion, down 5% from the year-ago period. Excluding one-time items, Ford’s earnings came in at 13 cents per share, six cents shy of analyst expectations.

Google turns to century-long debt to build AI NEW YORK: Google-parent Alphabet will issue bonds maturing in 100 years as it continues to invest massively in infrastructure for artificial intelligence, according to data published on Tuesday by Bloomberg. Alphabet and AI race rivals including Amazon, Meta, Microsoft are investing staggering amounts in infrastructure to power the technology, banking on it paying off.

Market reaction, though, has been mixed with some investors worried spending has gone overboard. Century-long bond issues by companies are a rarity, and especially for Alphabet which has ample online ad revenue available to pay for investments rather than resorting to debt. But, the rush to lead in AI has changed the game, calling for unprecedented spending on

The Silicon Valley internet giant reportedly aims to raise about US$20 billion overall, a chunk of it by issuing bonds that mature in February of 2126, with lenders so keen for a piece of the AI action that some US$100 billion orders were placed for the debt. Alphabet did not respond to a request for comment.