Meta Paid $17B to Write Kid Safety Rules for Every Other Social Media Platform
Meta Paid $17B – Gets to Write Safety Rules for Other SocMedia Platform
Meta has settled with 52 state and local Attorneys General for up to $18 billion, agreeing to implement a range of child safety features on Facebook and Instagram. Critics warn the settlement enshrines surveillance and age-gating into law, potentially violating the First Amendment and harming teens' rights. Meta also must encourage YouTube and TikTok to adopt similar measures, effectively setting industry-wide standards that smaller competitors may struggle to meet.
The lesson for the rest of the tech industry is grim and unambiguous: never study whether your own platform is causing harm.
- jazzyjackson
Nice detailed write up. I love-hate Meta’s PR spin on this: “Meta's Agreement With Bipartisan Attorneys General: Calling on TikTok and YouTube to Join Us in Supporting Teens”
https://investor.atmeta.com/investor-news/press-release-deta...
- diego_moita
So the vampire is now the manager of the blood bank?
- JohnMakin
These arguments are not very strong. It also makes the assumption that these platforms are the only possible place on the web for minors to get information. That's only true because these platforms literally made it that way. It also makes the absolutely insane assumption that children are on there consuming meaningful content and not literal brain rotting slop or worse.
There's no amount of mental gymnastics in my head I can think of to get to the conclusion this is bad for children, somehow. Bad for the web and privacy? I don't doubt it will become that way, but that's the world we already exist in, and again, no other large players are behaving well there either. That's an entirely different battle that should never have been mixed in with this one.
- ChrisArchitect
Discussion:
Did Meta's Big Settlement Actually Help It?
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49464678
Meta reaches $17B settlement over social media harms to children
- imperio59
Where are the regulations for PornHub and similar harmful websites?