LOS ANGELES (AP) — The world’s biggest social media companies face several landmark trials this year that seek to hold them responsible for harms to children who use their platforms. Opening statements for the first, in Los Angeles County Superior Court, began on Monday.
Instagram’s parent company Meta and Google’s YouTube face claims that their platforms deliberately addict and harm children. TikTok and Snap, which were originally named in the lawsuit, settled for undisclosed sums.
Jurors got their first glimpse into what will be a lengthy trial characterized by dueling narratives from the plaintiffs and the two remaining social media companies named as defendants. Opening arguments in the landmark case began Monday at the Spring Street Courthouse in downtown Los Angeles.
Mark Lanier delivered the opening statement for the plaintiffs first, in a lively display where he said the case is as “easy as ABC,” which he said stands for “addicting the brains of children.” He called Meta and Google “two of the richest corporations in history” who have “engineered addiction in children’s brains.”
At the core of the Los Angeles case is a 19-year-old identified only by the initials “KGM,” whose case could determine how thousands of other, similar lawsuits against social media companies will play out. She and two other plaintiffs have been selected for bellwether trials — essentially test cases for both sides to see how their arguments play out before a jury and what damages, if any, may be awarded, said Clay Calvert, a nonresident senior fellow of technology policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute.
I think the food analogy is a good one here. I have debated personally a lot about this false sense of choice, when in reality you are bombarded with every psychological tactic to keep you hooked. Instagram in this sense is no different. If it lawsuit leads to somewhere, I do not know, however at some point the whole manipulative algorithms should be addressed (but by who and when are the biggest questions)
I have long since been of the opinion that all the big social multinational media should be seen as global technical, communication and media infrastructure. All the companies should be seized and put under some global foundation or the UN, everything open sourced, costs paid by member states and the platforms forced to remain impartial and to be organized for improving human condition, development, communication and understanding. If there is no need for profit then there is no need for entrapping users in toxic swamps of algorithm hell for more platform engagement.