Meta’s Getting Sued

All in an Effort to Drive Engagement

Forty plus states are suing Meta (Facebook, Instagram and What’s App) and watching the developments of the court cases is DEFEND, a 100% volunteer-run, not-for-profit organization striving to defend children and other vulnerable people from predators (and other risks) on social media. About 130 or so volunteers from around the globe help on a variety of teams such as advocacy, education, human resources, and marketing. A large cohort of the volunteers work on 65square a social media site focused on providing safer, healthier user experiences.  

In contrast to DEFEND, Meta’s quarterly revenue, according to the Economist Meta’s was $34.1bn, of which advertising sales made up an outstanding 98.5 percent of it (“The world”, 2023). Net profits increased 164 percent to $11.6bn (“The world”, 2023). Mark Zuckerberg’s “Year of Efficiency” (“The world”, 2023) was helped out by first letting go of 12 percent or 11,000 staff members. Then, less than six months later, Meta fired another 10,000 employees while simultaneously closing 5000 vacant positions without hiring a soul in March 2023. Plus, they slashed budgets, eliminated perks, and decreased their real estate footprint. The austere measures to make Meta leaner, combined with the use of artificial intelligence, improved the business (“The world”, 2023). Imagine if Meta put the same effort into decreasing the more than 27 million child sex abuse reports documented by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) in 2022, as they do into saving money, cutting costs, and making a profit. 

The news of high profits is overshadowed by the 33 states suing Meta for deliberately developing algorithms causing children to become addicted to their platforms, hiding their own research where results repeatedly showed the harm to children they were causing, and harvesting data on kids under thirteen without asking for permission from a guardian or parent (“33 U.S. states”, 2023). Plus, nine attorney generals are filing lawsuits in their respective states. Bringing the total to 41 and Washington, D.C.(Ortutay, 2023). One Meta study found 13.5 percent of teen girls say Instagram makes thoughts of suicide worse and 17 percent of teen girls say it makes eating disorders worse (“33 U.S. states”, 2023). The states are going after Meta’s behaviour “to make sure that they are not exploiting . . . vulnerabilities in children, that [Meta is] not doing all the little, sophisticated, tricky things that we might not pick up on that drive engagement higher and higher and higher that allowed them to keep taking more and more time and data from our young people.” Jonathan Skrmetti, Tennessee Attorney General (Fung, 2023).

65square is focused on making social media safer. One step is using facial recognition to validate users and their age. The idea is to decrease the number of fake profiles and work to keep adults posing as children from communicating with minors or vice versa children saying they are older than they are and inappropriately communicating with adults. 65square believes if all users were verified on social media there would be a significant reduction in bullying, scammers, and the sharing of CSAM (child sex abuse material). 65square can segregate children online so that they can have a safe space (without fear of child predators or random adults contacting them). We’ve decided to take action to protect our children and vulnerable people. We’ve decided to become a leader and step up to the plate for the world to see what’s possible if we have online accountability.

References

“33 U.S. states sue Facebook and Instagram owner for making social media addictive to kids: Lawsuit alleges Meta has features aimed at teens despite knowing harm they cause.” CBC. 24 October 2023. https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/meta-lawsuit-children-addictive-1.7006259#:~:text=Thirty%2Dthree%20states%2C%20including%20California,be%20addicted%20to%20its%20platforms 

Fung, B. (24 October 2023). CNN Business. Dozens of states sue Instagram-parent Meta over ‘addictive’ features and youth mental health harms.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/24/tech/states-sue-instagram-parent-meta/index.html#:~:text=%E2%80%9CAnd%20what%20we%20want%20is,to%20keep%20taking%20more%20and. 

Ortutay, B. PBS. 24 October 2023. More than 40 states sue Meta claiming its social platforms are addictive and harm children’s mental health.

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/more-than-40-states-sue-meta-claiming-its-social-platforms-are-addictive-and-harm-childrens-mental-health.

“The world this week, Business.” The Economist, 28 October 2023, p. 8. 449(9369).