Plaintiffs in more than 70 lawsuits say Silicon Valley’s algorithms are causing real-world harm
Always On: Social media algorithms are designed to make us ever more obsessive about content that isn't always good for us Picture: BLOOMBERG
These children and others like them are the face of a novel effort to use litigation to pin responsibility for the alleged dangers of social media on the companies that run the most popular platforms. Among Haugen’s allegations was a claim that the company was knowingly preying on vulnerable young people to boost profits. Haugen revealed an internal study at Meta-owned Instagram that found evidence that many adolescent girls using the photo-sharing app were suffering from depression and anxiety around body-image issues.
“All sorts of services may be ‘addictive’ in the habit-forming sense — from television to video games to shopping for clothes — but the law does not impose liability simply for creating an activity which some may do too much, even where, as here, it allegedly results in tragedy,” Snap argued in a court filing seeking dismissal of the case filed by the 11-year-old girl’s mother.
Representatives for TikTok and ByteDance did not respond to a request for comment. A Google spokesperson said it has “invested heavily in creating safe experiences for children,” and cited parents’ ability to limit screen time or access to certain content.
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