US courts keeping close eye on Big Tech privilege claims, evidence preservation
By Alex Wilts and Madeline Hughes ( September 11, 2026, 20:42 GMT | Comment) -- Discovery conduct in high-profile Big Tech litigation, from privilege claims to evidence-preservation failures, is continuing to cause headaches for defense lawyers. Recent US court decisions, including one from District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in a social-media addiction case against Meta Platforms, raise questions about the effectiveness of an often-used defense strategy: asserting privilege claims as aggressively as possible at the outset. Courts’ pushback against that tactic and ostensible efforts to minimize written records have been shown to give plaintiffs additional leverage in litigation. When approving Meta Platforms' $17.1 billion US youth-safety deal with state attorneys general on Aug. 26, District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers also highlighted an attorney-client privilege dispute between the parties in the case where she found Meta’s redactions in a document “inappropriate.”...
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