417
Instagram and Facebook under EU investigation for causing child addiction and harm
(www.theverge.com)
I hope they'll get investigated for boomer radicalization next.
this post was submitted on 16 May 2024
417 points (98.8% liked)
Technology
60120 readers
4717 users here now
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Our Rules
- Follow the lemmy.world rules.
- Only tech related content.
- Be excellent to each another!
- Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
- Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
- Politics threads may be removed.
- No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
- Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
- Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
Approved Bots
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
I lost both mother and father for conspiracy theories. Unfortunately no way back . They are totally brainwashed
That requires one to acknowledge there's a problem and then summon the will to change it, which isn't a hallmark of radicalism.
Delete it for them?
Sorry for your loss.
They will now be part of the boomers being fools community.
By the level of conspiracy they are I think they have a high rank in community
Got into a huge argument with my dad and almost lost all contact with him from right wing brainwashing. We're good now but it's scarry just how far the right will go to tear families apart just to get what they want. I hope every last GOP member burns a slow painful death.
My wife's parents went crazy lead brained. They went pure antivaxxer and said if we don't want our kids to have grandparents, then get vaccinated. We lolled and said, "Bye".
It's been four years now.
They now pretend like they didn't say that every few months by sending us gifts and cards, that we promptly give away to charity.
We must have the same inlaws haha. Similar situation with my wife's parents and one sibling. They've never met our kid and still put all their right wing Facebook conspiracies ahead of meeting him. No loss to us - we'd rather spend time with sane people anyway.
Wild that EU needs to do this. Where's the US in all this? The company is even based there.
Children in wombs can't use Facebook or Instagram. Those are the only children we care about here.
Children in wombs can't use Facebook or Instagram [yet]
In utero NeuraLink implants.
This is the real answer.
The US (well, at least our legislators) are getting paid a lot of money to look the other way, and couldn't care less how children are affected.
Well, the endgame of that radicalization will be hangman's nooses being put up in the Capitol, last time the people putting it up were too stupid and led by a moron, but if they let it continue, someone half competent might try to come at them as well. They don't live that far away from society that if they let it catch fire, they won't get burned.
Why would the US be involved? It's not like Meta is Chinese or pro-Palestinian.
This is like an article declaring, "EU Investigates MySpace for causing child addiction and harm" -- the people they're trying to protect don't use that product any more. The time to do this investigation was fifteen years ago, and the US government should have been the ones to do it.
Don't get me wrong -- fuck Facebook. I hope they have to pay billions. But the people that company is harming now are adults and the elderly. I'm sure fifteen years from now, once all those people are dead, there'll be an in-depth investigation and legislation about it.
Literally every teenager at my school uses Instagram, kids do use Instagram still
Loads of young people use Instagram. And Messenger. And WhatsApp. Some have Threads. They own a few shitty mobile games companies.
Then on top of that Facebook collects data for third parties too via their ad network.
Going after Meta for this is 100% justified.
Justified? Absolutely. Timely? Hardly.
My point was it’s more than a decade too late, and all the EU will do is levy a minor fine that Meta won’t even blink at. The only country that could impose real consequences is the US, and they have no interest in anything that doesn’t benefit these nightmare cyberpunk megacorps.
Of course it would've been better if it were present from the beginning. But I'm not going to complain about them doing the right thing now.
And EU fines so far have proven to be quite the motivator. These aren't the baby fines the US hands out.
Timely? Hardly.
Depends on whether you count from the time facebook etc. became a problem and was recognised or such, or the passing of the Digital Services Act. The commission can't just impose fines randomly they have to have a legislative basis to do it.
EU fines are generally not a thing you can just blink at they're measured in percent of world-wide turnover. Historically they don't really dissuade companies from trying shit but they definitely are sufficient to make them stop shit. Also actually way more importantly they probably have tiktok in the pipeline but the paperwork still needs the one or other t crossed.
I was counting from when Facebook et al. became a clear problem — because, again, while I’m glad the EU is looking at this, it’s the US that has needed to take action. Their refusal to do so has left it to the EU to try to do something, and I’m skeptical that whatever they end up doing will make a difference. Like, if the price of the crime is a fine, then the crime is legal for a company as big as Meta.
If they're found to be tanking a continuous fine of 5% revenue because they're too darn profitable it won't take long for the parliament to change the regulation. With sufficient harm to the consumers it's also possible to simply shut down facebook, or at least their ability to do business in the EU which would make the market completely unprofitable as they're relying on EU advertisers. They definitely can unplug each and every server facebook has in the EU. The EP is way less captured by lobby interest than the US legislature is, doubly so by an uppity US company trying to skirt EU law.
What's more likely to happen though is the shareholders firing management because picking a fight with a bully the size of the EU isn't exactly good for the share price.
Well, you’re more optimistic than I am, but I hope you’re right.
The whole internet feels like it’s in a state of irrecoverable rot, and the last ten years have really tanked my confidence in governments to do anything about the clearly harmful, consumer hostile behavior inflicted on us — mostly because they seem to benefit a lot from letting Meta et al. do whatever they want. Like, EU fines, to date, have looked more like the organization wanting to wet their beak rather than fixing anything. I don’t know.
I know, I'm addicted to children now.
Never the parents' fault, eh?
Lol, good luck trying to control everything around your child and what it consumes as a parent. Pretty much impossible, especially nowadays.
So just say Fuck it, everyone else can do it instead... and then moan about your children being addicted?
I'm not excusing Meta here, but parents should definitely not be excused of the responsibility or raising their kids.
Oh no, definitely do something as a parent, like lock some apps or something. But with stuff like social media it's almost impossible to keep your kids away from it, especially without government intervention. Pretty sure some kids nowadays also just get bullied into using social media, even if they're not interested in it. I mean, kids get bullied over not having any Fortnite skins...
I have often thought about how I will do this with my child. Fortunately, I still have some time before this becomes relevant, but in the end it's like politics, isn't it? It's always about the tug of war between safety and freedom. As a father, I naturally pull in the direction of safety, but how hard can I pull? I don't know if I'm too naive, but maybe I can achieve a better result with education than with bans? If I ban something, my children should understand why there is a ban or restriction. I would also be prepared to engage in a discussion because I naturally think differently to my child. I hope that I will do everything right, I hated it as a child when there were bans without justification.
You're absolutely right! I feel like sometimes you need to pull your kids in the direction you think is right for them. And I think if a parent does a really good job at explaining why things are the way they are and at giving their kids a good understanding of right and wrong, then those kids will figure out a lot of stuff on their own very quickly.
I just see two extremes way too often when I go out:
-
Patents who let their kids do whatever and don't establish themselves as a figure or trust and guidance.
-
Parents who take it too far into the other direction and force their own beliefs on their kids, maybe even passing on their own trauma.
Neither one is good imo. But also, keep in mind that sometimes (young) kids just ask questions to get a certain reaction out of you lol
I'd go with education first. Forbidden fruit and all that...
load more comments
(3 replies)
Stack overflow error on recursive function "blame parents" at line 1.
The eternal excuse of those who profit or benefit from children getting involved in things they shouldn't.
You’re really going to tell us that you’ve never done something you parents told you not to?
Hard downvote.
This is an institutional problem, not an individual one.
FB markets its platform as safe and respectful of security, but it's exactly the opposite on both fronts and that is a proven fact. It's deliberately addictive, has led to widespread radicalization and mental illness in its users, and steals people's personal information.
It's the digital equivalent of marketing cigarettes to kids, only more harmful.
FB absolutely needs to be investigated and held accountable.
load more comments
(3 replies)
Facebook is almost more effective on adults. So whether or not you're right here is so ridiculously beyond the point anymore. They've lost all credibility and should be indefensible.
They did and should indeed.
Completely off-topic but...do you see the link picture as shaking?
For me it dances HARD and is very snappy. I wonder if it's me, my sleep deprivation or actually an illusion
Yeah, I do. But I'm extremely tired as well so I'm not a good comparison
Interesting. It almost doesn't happen after I rested well
Haha, same. I didn't expect that.
view more: next ›