They Built It to Be Addictive. Now They're Paying the Price.

📆This Week’s Topic

That’s right, Meta, or formerly known as Facebook, is being sued. The company, which owns several social media platforms such a as Instagram and WhatsApp is being used over claims of Social Media addiction, for landmark settlement of $17.1 billion. The settlement ends a federal trial in California, where 4 states were seeking $200 billion over accusations that Meta hurt children with addictive platforms and algorithms.

💳 The Issue

The problem, and what the trial is based off, is that Meta, along with Instagram, Snap, and TikTok, have their platforms and algorithms designed for compulsive use. Compulsive use is the uncontrollable repetition of behavior and loss of personal control over the behavior, in this case the behavior being doomscrolling. Other attorneys and individuals have filed lawsuits similar to the federal one from California, and the final settlement could prove to be a turning point for social media, as it’s gone largely unregulated up to now. In Texas, Meta agreed to pay $1 billion for similar allegations, and there are more lawsuits and trials to come for Meta and similar companies.

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📊 How Does This Affect My Wallet?

The cases are based off the argument that scrolling or using these platforms is addictive, similar to the arguments used against Big Tobacco in the 90s. More specifically, the claim states that the algorithm shows you what you want to see, and automatically plays, which can lead to you being unable to stop scrolling or using the platform. Some of the effects argued by the plaintiffs are depression, anxiety, and other mental disorders. It seems as if the compulsive use affects teens the most, but the first plaintiff was a 20 year old from California named KGM, who claimed that after joining Instagram and YouTube at a young age, she experienced depression and body image issues as a result.

🔚 Outcome

The 17.1 billion dollar settlement is the highest ever paid by a tech company to a state, and 12 of the 17 billion will be paid initially. The other 5 billion will be paid if similar platforms agree to reforms and financial penalties, and was negotiated by Meta so that it wouldn’t be singled out in the industry. CJ Mahoney, chief legal officer for Meta, made the argument that the changes need to be industrywide, as “teens move fluidly across dozens of apps.” Some of the other lawsuits against Meta come from schools, teenagers, and states, and their main argument is that social media can be as addictive as digital casinos or cigarettes.

⏳ Final Summary

There will definitely be reforms and changes to social media platforms in the future, and usage of those platforms will likely be regulated either by law or by the apps themselves. The outcome of the lawsuits to come will likely influence the changes, say how many there will be, but as Meta claims to have teens protection high on its agenda, apps such as Instagram, TikTok, and Snap will end up different then they were due to the damages inflicted on users due to the addictive nature of the algorithms. But in the future, it will be interesting to see how the changes brought on by the lawsuit affect people, and how they function at work and interact online with others.

🙏Thank You & Important Information

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Grayson Stein and Jacob Gans