A California jury on Wednesday found that Meta and Google were to blame for the depression and anxiety of a woman who compulsively used social media as a small child, awarding her $3 million in a rare verdict holding Silicon Valley accountable for its role in fueling a youth mental health crisis.
The jurors concluded that Meta and Google should pay the woman $3 million in compensatory damages, with Meta on the hook for 70% of that amount.
The jury also decided that Meta and Google’s actions should trigger punitive damages, which means there will be a separate phase of the trial where the jury will decide what amount of damages are appropriate to punish the multi-trillion-dollar companies for their conduct.
No real mention of the parents other than a line about how they’re lining up to sue too. When I was a kid, my parents made me log every moment I spent in front of the computer in a book along with what I was doing. I got into some stuff, but I also got sat down and talked to a few times. Many of my friends had to share phones with siblings. The computer was in a public space and we were all told to never use our real name online. Where did things go wrong and why?
I dislike Meta an FB a lot, but I think it’s ridiculous to make them responsible for every kid in America. Isn’t there a confirmation dialogue that says you’re not allowed to use it if you are under 13? The parents gave them a tool that can be used to look up >>>almost anything<<<. Thats like handing your kid a metaphorical RPG and sending them out the door to go play. Making sure kids have guidance and help in developing media literacy is at least partially the parents job.
Having said that, I do think there is a lot of other bad stuff META did that should have already put them out of business. In my opinion, they’re obviously a bad actor but blaming them infantalizes everyone else. Poor little Americans, powerless against the big bad Meta. Also, why is it okay to manipulate adults? If anything, these feeds should be boldly labeled as “does not reflect reality”, or “this content has been algorithmically selected to be addictive, take frequent breaks, touch grass”
It seems many didn’t even read the quoted part of the article. The $3 million payment is to one person. Yes, it’s pennies to the giant companies, but this could open the door to thousands of similar lawsuits, quickly turning that cost into not just pennies.
That’s like sentencing a murderer to pay $3 in restitution which he can and will appeal.
I thought the same thing for a moment, until I realized that’s for one person. Now imagine a similar class action lawsuit. Of course it’s not realistic to expect that dollar amount multiplied by that many people, but it could be a pretty significant dent.
yes… yes it is realistic.
the precedent is set that it costs 3million per person…
3 million plus legal fees by the defense, so probably closer to 3.5 million.
the precedent is set that it costs 3million per person
Far from it actually. If anything appeals may pare down damages and nonpunitive damages must be backed by actual calculations. The bigger point I think is this sort of case can survive.
The real takeaway here is not the dollar amount. It’s that a jury finally recognized the mechanism: these platforms are designed to hijack attention, especially for young users, and that design choice has consequences. The 3M is a start. What matters is whether this changes how they engineer engagement or just becomes a cost of doing business.
I wasn’t commenting on what should morally or legally be. I’m just saying that if there’s, say, 1 million plaintiffs in a class action lawsuit it’s not realistic to expect 3 million dollars (minus attorneys fees) in each person’s bank account. That would be 3 trillion dollars, not including whatever punitive damages end up being. There’s a practical issue to be considered.
and CEO’s would have been jailed by now.
I’m going to move to Iceland.
what’s in Iceland?
Bankers in jail after the 2008 subprime mortgages crash.
There will be additional proceedings to determine the amount of punitive damages to apply as well. So this probably isn’t the entire judgement.
Whether it survived appeal to establish a precedent for other complaints is another story.
$3M
Effectively, they won. That can’t even be classified as a slap on the wrist. That’s cheaper than an hour of OpEx for them
Woah! A whole 3 million??? From two companies with a profit of a medium sized country? Won’t anyone think of the shareholders?!?!
Edit:changed company to country so I didn’t look like an idiot
That’s like asking me to pay 3 cents…
perhaps you meant “medium sized country”?
Yup, fuck, thanks, good looking out
3 million? What a fucking joke justice is anymore
$3M to a single person. The real headline should be that this opens the door for hundreds of thousands of similar lawsuits, which will use this case as precedent.
Any fine below 1 billion is a gigantic “fuck you” to the consumer
People complaining about the amount are missing the precedent this sets.
CLASS ACTION NOW! Gut these psychotic corporations that are experimenting on our fucking minds in real time, and nationalize their digital infrastructure so it can be run for the betterment of society rather than the profits of shareholders. Make us all the stakeholders in what can be a transformational tool for social good if freed from endless technoligarchical greed.
FUCK CLASS ACTIONS! Those are made to cater to the defendant, by consolidating a ton of independent lawsuits into a single one. It only makes the defendant’s job easier, while the individuals who were directly affected get a few nickels and a “we’re legally obligated to say we’re sorry” letter. Sue them directly, and make them defend every. Single. Individual. Case. You want to really make them hurt? The best way to do that is with a million individual lawsuits, not one big lawsuit.
Not sure I agree with that. I’ll take an unexpected five bucks because of Red Bull’s false advertising that some ingredient doesn’t have literal energy (calories) to it. I wouldn’t start my own lawsuit over it, which may or may not be as successful. More importantly, every class action notice I’ve ever gotten had instructions to opt out and initiate my own legal action if I so choose. Also, if we’re talking about a class that includes thousands/millions of people, there are only so many lawyers involved in whatever specialty.
Tl;dr class actions penalize companies on behalf of those who wouldn’t realistically file their own lawsuit while still allowing those who would.
I agree with you, I fully support whatever mechanism that can handle and managed to provided the best path to success and exact the most pain and punishment to these companies in the name of restoring the most victims of their ongoing crimes. I assumed that was class action but I’m all for a million separate trials too, however that happens.
Did Zuckerbot throw it over his shoulder on the way out of the courtroom?
While he filmed it on his glassholes.
He had it brought in in pennies
People don’t even bother to read the excerpt, right?
The price of doing business. Not even sanctions or protections were installed to prevent addictive doom scrolling and they get to keep doing this shit until they can lobby for complete control of internet
There should be demonstrations against bullshit rulings like this, this amount is basically no fine at all for them. And after the demonstrations go unheard, maybe we shouldnt just tolerate this shit. At the very least everyone should give support to those who do more against the megacorps.It just set a major precedent.
Hmm yea, and now i noticed that i misread something earlier and the amount was for compensation for singular person and not fine. Hopefully more people will get justice with this.
It sets them up for thousands of similar cases. I can pay one parking ticket, but a thousand is another story.
