One afternoon last summer, Matthew Bergman sat on a bench outside a courtroom in downtown Manhattan. The founder of the Social Media Victims Law Center (SMVLC) was there representing a client named Norma Nazario. Her 15-year-old son, Zackery, died in February 2023 while “subway surfing”—riding on the outside of a moving Brooklyn-bound J train, a stunt his mother believes was encouraged by his social media algorithm. Bergman was representing Nazario in a lawsuit against TikTok and Instagram, which alleges Zackery was “targeted, goaded and encouraged” to engage in subway surfing because of their products’ “unreasonably dangerous design.” As the sun streamed through the windows of the court building, the lawyer let out a long sigh and jiggled his leg. Then he turned his yellow legal pad to

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