Mark Zuckerberg Was Warned on Social Media Addiction, Filing Shows
Employees at Meta Platforms Inc. and ByteDance Inc. were aware of the harmful effects of their platforms on young children and teenagers but disregarded the information or in some cases sought to undermine it, court filings show.
The revelations were disclosed in a lawsuit over social media addiction that had been filed previously but with key portions sealed from public view. An unredacted version filed over the weekend in federal court in Oakland, California, offers details about how much engineers and others, including Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, knew about the harms of social media and their misgivings about it.
“No one wakes up thinking they want to maximize the number of times they open Instagram that day,” one Meta employee wrote in 2021, according to the filing. “But that's exactly what our product teams are trying to do.”
When The Scrolling Doesn't Stop: Social Media Lawsuits Pile Up
The case in Oakland comprises a collection of scores of complaints filed across the US on behalf of adolescents and young adults who allege that Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat and Google's YouTube caused them to suffer anxiety, depression, eating disorders and sleeplessness. More than a dozen suicides also have been blamed on the companies, based on claims that they knowingly designed algorithms that drew children down dangerous and addictive paths.
In their defense, the social media giants point to a 1996 law that gives internet platforms broad immunity from claims over harmful content posted by users. Both sides are watching closely a Supreme Court case that will likely determine the fate of the litigation in Oakland.
According to the new filing, internal documents at TikTok parent ByteDance show that the company knows young people
Read more on tech.hindustantimes.com
