Online Reporter
LOS ANGELES. – A jury’s damning verdict that Instagram and YouTube apps are addictive, and deliberately engineered that way, and that its owners have been negligent in their safeguarding of children who have used them, is a BOMBSHELL ruling.
It’s a sombre moment for Silicon Valley and the implications are global.
The tech giants in this case, Meta and Google, must now pay US$6m in damages to a young woman known as Kaley, the victim at the centre of this case.
She claimed the platforms left her with body dysmorphia, depression and suicidal thoughts.
Both companies intend to appeal, with Meta maintaining a single app cannot be solely responsible for a teen mental health crisis.
Google, meanwhile, says YouTube is not a social network. But for now the ruling means “the era of impunity is over” according to Dr Mary Franks, a law professor at George Washington University.
It is hard to overstate what a game-changing moment this court verdict is for social media.
Whatever happens next, and there will undoubtedly be appeals and further legal processes, this is going to redefine the landscape. It could even be the beginning of the end of the social media era as we know it.
A ‘big tobacco’ moment?
The world’s doomscrollers might not have been shocked by the verdict but the tech companies were.
Meta and Google racked up eye-watering legal fees defending this. This case, and others like it, are clearly of huge significance to them.
The other two companies in the trial – TikTok and Snap, the owner of Snapchat – settled before it went to court. There were mutterings in the tech sphere they couldn’t afford the fight.
Arturo Bejar, who used to work at Instagram, said he warned Mark Zuckerberg of the dangers it posed to children several years ago.
“It changed from a product you used to a product that uses you,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme yesterday. Meta has denied his claims.
Some experts have described the verdict as big tech’s “big tobacco” moment, and we know how that worked out – although it didn’t stop people smoking altogether.
Could there be health warnings on screens? Restricted advertising and sponsorship opportunities?
The tech companies are currently legally protected in the US by a clause known as Section 230, which shields them from liability for the content that is published on them. Other types of media companies do not have this benefit.
It is often said the tech industry couldn’t survive without it. But scepticism over the shield may be growing, with Senate Commerce Committee having held a hearing to discuss it on Wednesday.
Another option is that the platforms are forced to strip out all the features designed to keep people there.
But engagement is big tech’s lifeblood.
Lose all the techniques: the endless scrolling, the algorithmic recommendations, the auto play, and you’re left with a very different, and arguably limited, social media experience.
The success of big platforms lies in their footfall – keeping large numbers of people online for as long as possible and coming back as often as possible, in order that they might be targeted with as many ads as possible. That’s how the companies make money. – The Sun
