1% of their market cap. I don't think we'll see someone with a net worth of $100,000 paying only a $1000 fine for harming children.
If the handling of the Epstein files in the US is anything to go by, they’d get away scot free.
Meta reaches $17B settlement over social media harms to children
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Re: Meta reaches $17B settlement over social media harms to children
#22The WSJ reports: "As part of the settlement agreement, Meta will also make sweeping changes to its services, Facebook and Instagram, including implementing a default two-hour time limit on its apps for users under 18." The question is of course if these limits are enforced and if they are shared across other services.
Two hours is one hour too long if you ask me. This should be implemented also for adults. And non-avoidable.
Two hours is two hours too long.
Re: Meta reaches $17B settlement over social media harms to children
#23Pay 25% from your 2025 profit for harming children since at least 2019 and be able to continue doing so. Sounds like a loss for society and a win for Meta.
Yeah but politicians get to claim this is a win. Let's be honest, that's the real reason the prosecution went for a deal this small.
Meta has the pocketbook to appeal this to a non-jury setup where they'd be more likely to win (imo most juries are ready to agree to any penalty on social media companies for any reason)
Re: Meta reaches $17B settlement over social media harms to children
#24Table stakes. Just the cost of doing business.
A bit like millionaires who park illegally because "it only cost $100 to park here, and my PA will do the admin"
Re: Meta reaches $17B settlement over social media harms to children
#25still feels like they got away easy for raping children's minds "Meta has long argued it could not have misled consumers about whether its services were addictive because "social media addiction" is not a recognized psychiatric condition." that's a nice escape hatch, considering that they are using all the tricks in the book (from online gambling, etc) and then some
This is crazy, Meta is not solely responsible for people and kids having addiction to their phones (very similar if not identical to social media addiction). Gambling has regulations all the companies have to abide by. Social media and content platforms have nothing like that.
They are a very, very, very significant contributor.
Re: Meta reaches $17B settlement over social media harms to children
#26still feels like they got away easy for raping children's minds "Meta has long argued it could not have misled consumers about whether its services were addictive because "social media addiction" is not a recognized psychiatric condition." that's a nice escape hatch, considering that they are using all the tricks in the book (from online gambling, etc) and then some
This is crazy, Meta is not solely responsible for people and kids having addiction to their phones (very similar if not identical to social media addiction). Gambling has regulations all the companies have to abide by. Social media and content platforms have nothing like that.
True. They’re just one of the largest companies who deliberately engineered their software to be addictive, the Sacklers of social media, if you will.
Re: Meta reaches $17B settlement over social media harms to children
#27Would be nice to be able to enable these features as an adult (stop autoplay videos and no algorithmic feed).
Also, I’m surprised by the lack of enforcement to remove infinite scrolling.
Re: Meta reaches $17B settlement over social media harms to children
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is crazy, Meta is not solely responsible for people and kids having addiction to their phones (very similar if not identical to social media addiction). Gambling has regulations all the companies have to abide by. Social media and content platforms have nothing like that.
They are a very, very, very significant contributor.
Who is paying for their internet access?
Re: Meta reaches $17B settlement over social media harms to children
#29As a school administrator, this is pretty disappointing.
I've included slides showing a graphic of someone in a slot machine next to a screenshot of Instagram, and would do an activity where the children themselves drew connections of what they saw/knew. It was not difficult, and they hit it out of the park every time.
The fact that the possible damages sought was over 200 billion, and this settlement clocks in at less than ten percent of that value plus "concessions" that really at this point are just tablestakes for them product itself to just be viable given the parent backlash against these things, is incredibly disappointing. They have cost people on the periphery of this A LOT more, and from a merely business proposition, the wanton disregard for safety in this case proved to be a smart business move. The lawsuit should have had a chilling effect on anyone trying to do anything similar lately, but that will not be the case.
Re: Meta reaches $17B settlement over social media harms to children
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is crazy, Meta is not solely responsible for people and kids having addiction to their phones (very similar if not identical to social media addiction). Gambling has regulations all the companies have to abide by. Social media and content platforms have nothing like that.
They are a very, very, very significant contributor.
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