‘At odds with wellbeing’: Meta disregarded its research on teen harm, US court hears
By EducationHQ News TeamPublished
32 minutes ago
Meta Platforms’ leadership disregarded internal research about its Instagram platform’s impact on teenagers as the company sought to maximise profit from young users, lawyers for the US state of Tennessee have told a jury
Nearly every state in the US has filed claims against Meta over its platforms’ alleged impact on children. PHOTO: readymade
Nearly every state in the US has filed claims against Meta over its platforms’ alleged impact on children. PHOTO: readymade
During opening statements in a seven-week trial in state court in Tennessee, the state’s lawyers said Meta researchers repeatedly flagged that some teenagers were compulsively using the platform, leading to eating disorders, depression and self-harm
But despite those warnings, Meta did not disable features such as autoplay, notifications and infinite scroll that lawyers said were designed to keep teens on Instagram as long as possible and increase the number of ads they viewed
A lawyer for Meta countered the company has been transparent about the risks teens face on Instagram and the amount of dangerous content that it finds. The company works hard to find problems and fix them, he said
The lawsuit, filed by Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti’s office, seeks financial penalties and a court order directing Instagram to modify aspects of the platform that the state says are harmful to teens’ mental health
If the jury finds the company liable, the trial will enter a second phase before Chancellor Russell Perkins, the judge overseeing the trial, who will decide whether to order the company to pay financial penalties and make changes to Instagram to make it safer for teens
During the opening statements, Tom Cartmell, a lawyer for the US state, played the familiar dinging sound of a notification hitting a smartphone
Unpredictable rewards like notifications trigger dopamine hits that promote addiction, which has a particularly strong impact on the brains of kids, Cartmell said
Meta understood the brain science behind why teens find its platform so irresistible, he said
Cartmell showed the jury an internal document from 2017 in which Meta product managers wrote that features like notifications and infinite scroll “are inherently at odds with wellbeing” and said the company needed to warn the public
“This warning never came,” Cartmell said
Kevin Huff, a lawyer for Meta, said documents like those Cartmell cited are proof that the company is searching for problems on its platforms, so it can improve them
The company has developed tools to help limit problematic use of Instagram, and seeks to empower teachers and parents to help keep teens safe, Huff said
Huff urged jurors to consider whether Meta should bear sole responsibility for societal problems such as suicide, child exploitation and addiction
“We think the evidence will show that Meta is doing its part and empowering others to do their part, because protecting teens online is a shared responsibility. It takes a village.”
Nearly every state in the US has filed claims against Meta over its platforms’ alleged impact on children
More than two dozen of the lawsuits have been consolidated in multi-district litigation in San Francisco, while many other states have sued in their own courts
Separately, Meta and other social media companies are facing thousands of lawsuits brought by individuals and school districts
Tennessee’s lawsuit is the second state case to reach a jury. Earlier this year, a jury in New Mexico found the company liable and ordered it to pay $US375 million
A judge is weighing additional financial penalties as well as an order directing the company to change Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp in the state
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