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Meta loses bid to dismiss US states' claims that FB, Instagram addict children

reuters.com

21–30 of 84 posts

Re: Meta loses bid to dismiss US states' claims that FB, Instagram addict children

#21

Seriously losing confidence in the American judicial system with rulings like this. Facebook is already blocking children below age 13 and now with social media bans in place in many states the cut off is now 16. So frankly rulings like this just seem like the government seeing dollar signs and asking for hand outs. And all because people apparently can't accept any personal responsibility. Disclaimer: I do not have…

This seems totally reasonable. It is designed to be addictive, and they definitely target folks under 18. The article specifically mentions teens.

You still haven't convinced me that is inherently bad that is warrants some sort of monetary damages. All entertainment is addictive. That's the whole point.

This is just people seeing dollar signs asking for handouts. Nothing of an real value to society. Why is it okay for FB to be sued but not say Pokemon? I think Pokemon is way more dangerous, addictive, and is basically gambling with the card packs.

Have some personal responsibility for once.

Re: Meta loses bid to dismiss US states' claims that FB, Instagram addict children

#22
Large groups of people just don't know how to solve these sorts of problems. A government will never say "facebook should either not exist or should radically modify its product so that it is no longer successful" At best, they will push for identity verification or age verification.

These are not the only two possible courses, but these will be the choices put in front of us. Get used to reading books and going on walks. The internet is almost dead.

Re: Meta loses bid to dismiss US states' claims that FB, Instagram addict children

#23

This is an area where we really could use case law to protect kids from the Zuckerberg's of the world. It's important for the future. We're not going to "self-regulate" our way out of this.

But when governments do regulate (UK, AUS etc all) - people cry foul.

i agree with the sibling comment here. someone in a comment section somewhere is crying foul about everything.

Re: Meta loses bid to dismiss US states' claims that FB, Instagram addict children

#24

This actualy came up in yesterday's congressional MKULTRA hearing. Somebody at the hearing pointed out the absurdity of the CIA claiming that MKULTRA was a dead end when we have 20 years of social media scandals and lawsuits showing that social media corporations are intentionally creating products that can manipulate large groups of people on an individual level. Clearly the hypotheses the CIA was testing were not a…

MKULTRA was about using _drugs_ to alter state. It has literally zero other than pop culture memes and conspiracy theory in relation to what facebook is doing. The facts are basically: Facebook's own researchers and independent researchers presented real harms caused by Facebook's algorithms, and they fired them, ignored them and took the datasets away and continued doing as they want. You don't need to go to any con…

MKULTRA was about using drugs to alter state and produce uninhibited truthfulness.

Social media has a direct impact on dopamine and uninhibited oversharing.

The mechanism isn’t even ambiguous, which is exactly why there’s a case, about the production of a deliberately addictive substance. The chemicals and effects differ, but it’s deliberate use and production as the same exact means to an end do not.

There’s zero ambiguity here of the alignment on an end goal.

Side note: is META hiring and can you refer me?

Re: Meta loses bid to dismiss US states' claims that FB, Instagram addict children

#25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there a place where self-regulation ever works?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_Dues I think this is a fun historical example. Ships passing through Denmark needed to pay a tax of 1-2% of the value of their cargo. They self-assessed that value. The twist that makes it interesting was that the King could choose to purchase any cargo immediately at the reported value. If a ship underreported, they might save on tax, but they risked taking a hefty loss. I have no…

Interesting variation on the "I cut you choose" game mechanic!

Re: Meta loses bid to dismiss US states' claims that FB, Instagram addict children

#26

Seriously losing confidence in the American judicial system with rulings like this. Facebook is already blocking children below age 13 and now with social media bans in place in many states the cut off is now 16. So frankly rulings like this just seem like the government seeing dollar signs and asking for hand outs. And all because people apparently can't accept any personal responsibility. Disclaimer: I do not have…

Society won't collapse if we ban kids from social media.

Sure some tech bros won't get their Lambos but I can live with that.

Re: Meta loses bid to dismiss US states' claims that FB, Instagram addict children

#27
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_Dues I think this is a fun historical example. Ships passing through Denmark needed to pay a tax of 1-2% of the value of their cargo. They self-assessed that value. The twist that makes it interesting was that the King could choose to purchase any cargo immediately at the reported value. If a ship underreported, they might save on tax, but they risked taking a hefty loss. I have no…

That's literally the opposite of self-regulation.

Not quite the opposite, it still outsourced the administrative burden. They avoided the hassle of boarding every ship and inspecting the cargo with a random threat. One could even call it "properly incentivized self-regulation".

Re: Meta loses bid to dismiss US states' claims that FB, Instagram addict children

#28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This seems totally reasonable. It is designed to be addictive, and they definitely target folks under 18. The article specifically mentions teens.

You still haven't convinced me that is inherently bad that is warrants some sort of monetary damages. All entertainment is addictive. That's the whole point. This is just people seeing dollar signs asking for handouts. Nothing of an real value to society. Why is it okay for FB to be sued but not say Pokemon? I think Pokemon is way more dangerous, addictive, and is basically gambling with the card packs. Have some per…

> This is just people seeing dollar signs asking for handouts. Nothing of an real value to society.

this is exactly facebook's business model ???

Re: Meta loses bid to dismiss US states' claims that FB, Instagram addict children

#29

Large groups of people just don't know how to solve these sorts of problems. A government will never say "facebook should either not exist or should radically modify its product so that it is no longer successful" At best, they will push for identity verification or age verification. These are not the only two possible courses, but these will be the choices put in front of us. Get used to reading books and going on w…

The government regulates plenty of complex products and markets. Software isn't that special.

Re: Meta loses bid to dismiss US states' claims that FB, Instagram addict children

#30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This seems totally reasonable. It is designed to be addictive, and they definitely target folks under 18. The article specifically mentions teens.

You still haven't convinced me that is inherently bad that is warrants some sort of monetary damages. All entertainment is addictive. That's the whole point. This is just people seeing dollar signs asking for handouts. Nothing of an real value to society. Why is it okay for FB to be sued but not say Pokemon? I think Pokemon is way more dangerous, addictive, and is basically gambling with the card packs. Have some per…

> All entertainment is addictive

But not all entertainment is made equal, a simple example is single player games and microtransactions based games.

Similarly, social media as we know it abuses reward mechanism specifically to maximise engagement and screen time with complete disregard of the person's well being and proclivity for compulsive behaviour.

> Have some personal responsibility for once.

I am of this same opinion, people need to assume some level of responsibility for them to get better, but the fact is that addiction forces people to make choices they regret later. It robs the person from their individuality.

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