Meta to pay $23b billion in social media addiction case

Global giant Meta will pay $23b in a landmark case for failures to protect children against social media addiction.

The Meta trial heard that "millions" of 11 and 12-year-olds had accounts on Instagram, but the media company "did little to keep them off."

The trial is the result of a lawsuit filed in 2023 by 29 US states, including California and New York.

The states sought billions from Meta as penalties for their alleged lack of action on the mental health effects on its platforms on minors.

The news has been met with resounding enthusiasm by experts.

Michael Clements, Executive Director, Business and Human Rights Centre, said:

"It is increasingly clear that the legal shields that have long protected tech companies are not impregnable.

"Today’s announcement of Meta’s landmark $17 billion settlement, plus commitment to make major changes to its products, may signal a turning tide for Big Tech and its backers: a shifting calculus of risk in the boardroom and one that should prompt investors to question business models that have long prioritised speed and expansion over safety.

“The case for human rights due diligence in tech more generally has never been clearer, to identify and mitigate harms before they are built into the products that fundamentally shape and affect our lives.”

 

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A post shared by ABC News (@abcnews_au)

Meta vs the States mega lawsuit

In opening arguments just last week, lawyer Megan O'Neill for the states argued that Meta targeted young people for account on Facebook and Instagram, claiming it also “assured the public that its platforms were safe for kids”.

O'Neill said the company's strategy was to: “Hook the users; hold them for as long as they can; harvest their data; hide the truth from the public when making public statements.”

She added, "Meta said it put safety over profits, but hid the reality that, time and again, when it came to make a decision, profits won."

Paul Schmidt for Meta rejected the information which O'Neill relied on, which stated "1 in 5 teens says Instagram makes them feel worse".

Schmidt said: "That sounds pretty bad."

"What else does the document say?"

"That 41% of teens said it made them feel better and another 41% said it had no effect."

Schmidt also raised the issue with age-verification and argued that privacy laws prevented Meta from saving and using the data it needed to monitor underage accounts.

He finally conceded, “There can be no dispute that Meta has recognised people struggle, or can struggle, with their use of social media, and has come up with tools to try and address that.”

But overall, the argument from Meta was that social media addiction does not exist.