it's more about surveillance than actually protecting children

Everyone Cheering The Social Media Addiction Verdicts Against Meta Should Understand What They’re Actually Cheering For

https://www.techdirt.com/2026/03/26/everyone-cheering-the-social-media-addiction-verdicts-against-meta-should-understand-what-theyre-actually-cheering-for/

#SocilaMedia #Meta #MarkZuckerberg #FreeSpeech #SocialMediaAddiction #TechNews #Privacy #Censorship #BigTech #Section230 #KOSA

Everyone Cheering The Social Media Addiction Verdicts Against Meta Should Understand What They’re Actually Cheering For

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://www.techdirt.com/2026/03/26/everyone-cheering-the-social-media-addiction-verdicts-against-meta-should-understand-what-theyre-actually-cheering-for/

Last night I was invited to go on the @BBCNews channel with presenter Christian Fraser to react to the breaking news that #Meta & #Google had been found liable in a social media addiction trial in Los Angeles, brought by a young woman who claims she became addicted to social media as a child.

I had less than 15 minutes to get ready and I had to listen to the press conference and react to it immediately - so please excuse the messy hair 😅

Here are the main points of what I said:

📌This is a civil case. We need robust legislation, otherwise there is no precise US federal or state law that the tech giants have broken and they can keep appealing. You need to have a law in order to determine someone broke that law.

📌Right now, although we know there *is* definitely harm, the studies are inconclusive & only self-reporting. We need more studies and proven psychological analysis of harm to our young people.

📌We need our governments to stop being lenient with the tech giants and make it clear what specifically we expect from them, what tools and features we want to see, and we need to base that off specific, stated, measured harms.

#socialmedia #YouTube #Facebook #Instagram #techpolicy #technews #technology #socialmediaaddiction #socialmediaban

Landmark L.A. jury verdict finds Instagram, YouTube were designed to addict kids

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2026-03-25/social-media-lawsuit-trial-meta-google-verdict

#HackerNews #LandmarkVerdict #SocialMediaAddiction #KidsOnline #SafetyTech

While this is likely long overdue, I have to wonder what nefarious people are going to use it for that won't be for the benefit of users. The mandatory identification of users on the Internet comes to mind.

#socialmediaaddiction #lawsuit #meta #google

Meta and YouTube found liable in social media addiction trial
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c747x7gz249o?referrer=https%3A%2F%2Freddit.com

RE: https://rssfeed.media/@abcfeeds/116291825495347262

Zuck looks like a rabbit in the headlights in the pic. And how’s the arrogance in this statement: “Meta said it respectfully disagreed with the verdict and was evaluating its legal options.”

Good that the article also mentions:

“In a separate case this week, a jury in New Mexico found Meta violated state law by misleading users about the safety of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp and of enabling child sexual exploitation on those platforms.

AP/Reuters”

#antiSocialMedia #socialMediaAddiction #USPol #Zuck #meta #addiction #mentalHealth #publicHealth #reconnectingconsequencesToCauses