Smoke Behind the Screen

Verse 1

Twenty-four hours was all it took,

Two juries read from the same dark book,

Meta stood trial and Meta fell,

Liable for the harm they knew so well,

Child exploitation, addiction's chain,

A corporation built on children's pain,

The courtroom whispered what we feared was true,

The screens we trusted turned a darker hue.

Chorus

Smoke behind the screen, smoke behind the glow,

Big Tobacco's ghost has found a place to go,

It's not a metaphor, it's a docket number now,

Meta's reckoning has come — they have to answer how,

Smoke behind the screen, rising slow and grey,

Our children paid the price we looked away.

Verse 2

They called it connection, called it a friend,

But the algorithm fed until the end,

Two verdicts landing back to back,

A legal wall with no way to turn back,

The tech industry's tobacco moment here,

Not in the future — now, this very year,

Jurors saw the evidence laid bare,

Designed for addiction without a care.

Chorus

Smoke behind the screen, smoke behind the glow,

Big Tobacco's ghost has found a place to go,

It's not a metaphor, it's a docket number now,

Meta's reckoning has come — they have to answer how,

Smoke behind the screen, rising slow and grey,

Our children paid the price we looked away.

Verse 3

Once they said that cigarettes were fine,

Doctors smiled in every ad and sign,

Now the parallels are crystal clear,

Meta knew the damage year by year,

Social media hooked the young and small,

Two juries said you're liable for it all,

The courtroom doors have opened wide,

No more places left for them to hide.

Bridge

Every scroll, every notification's ring,

Was a thread pulled tight on a broken string,

And the parents cried and the lawyers fought,

Till justice did what silence would not,

This is the moment the tide has turned,

A lesson that the whole world learned.

Chorus

Smoke behind the screen, smoke behind the glow,

Big Tobacco's ghost has found a place to go,

It's not a metaphor, it's a docket number now,

Meta's reckoning has come — they have to answer how,

Smoke behind the screen, rising slow and grey,

Our children paid the price we looked away.

Inspired by real events. Names, details, and narrative may be fictionalized.