A Majority of US States File a Lawsuit Against Meta for "Harming Youth"
quietus writes:
"At the heart of these accusations is this idea that we prioritize profit over safety and well-being. That's just not true."
Mark Zuckerberg, on his own facebook page, October 2021, as quoted by Reuters.
Despite years of discussions, US Congress hasn't been able to pass new online protections for children.
This Tuesday, 42 US states took matters in their own hands, and sued Meta [Platforms] and its Instagram unit. An important factor in the decision to go to court was the US Congress testimony of a Facebook whistleblower, Frances Haugen (testimony 1, 2 (pdf), hearing (context)).
According to the federal lawsuit (pdf here), Meta
- created a business model focused on maximizing young users' time on its platforms,
- employs harmful and psychologically manipulative platform features while misleading the public about the safety of those features,
- published reports showing misleadingly low rates of user harms, and
- in spite of the overwhelming evidence linking its platforms to young user harms, refuses to address those harms while continuing to conceal and downplay its platforms' adverse effects.
While much of the complaint includes information conditionally under seal as part of the investigation by the attorneys general, publicly available sources - including evidence disclosed by former Meta employees - also detail Meta's efforts to attract young users and make its platforms addictive to children and teens. For example, the Wall Street Journal published an internal Facebook document in 2021 that said the following about young users: "They are a valuable but untapped audience."
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