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Meta removes ads for social media addiction litigation

392 pointsby giuliomagnificotoday at 1:23 PM161 commentsview on HN

Comments

elAhmotoday at 5:23 PM

We can effectively trace all of the problems we have today in a global scale back to social media.

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bilekastoday at 2:06 PM

> "We will not allow trial lawyers to profit from our platforms while simultaneously claiming they are harmful."

Wow.. That is quite a statement. Am I right in saying that in order to claim for the class action lawsuit, which facebook has been 'found negligent', that the victims need to take an action collectively in order to claim ? IE They need to be reached somehow to inform them of the possibility ?

Seems the most obvious place to advertise would be Meta.

I understand Meta can basically do whatever they like with their ToS but the statement from the Meta spokesperson seems like an extremely bad idea.

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Xeoncrosstoday at 3:30 PM

As an aside, class-action lawsuits seem less than ideal for the public. The awards benefit the lawyers and perhaps a small handful, but the actual plaintiffs only get $0.05. In addition, successful class-action suits prevent further litigation from being allowed for the same issue.

Individuals bringing their own lawsuits seems like it would affect better change as 1) the award money would be better distributed instead of concentrated and 2) the amounts levied against the companies would be higher and more of concern than the class-action slap-on-the-wrist they currently get.

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shevy-javatoday at 5:14 PM

I think it is time to disband Facebook. Ever since they attempted to infiltrate the linux ecosystem via age sniffing, they really need to go. Corporate systemd can also go - we should really clean up the whole ecosystem. What ever happened to "privacy first?

neilvtoday at 5:54 PM

Idea of something that undergraduate colleges could do, to encourage reflection about ethics in careers:

Annually poll all the students, to get rankings of how the ethics of well-known companies/brands are perceived by the students.

Then publish the results to students, in a timely fashion, before they're deciding job offers and internships.

I speculate that effects of this could include:

1. Good hiring candidates modifying what offers they pursue and accept -- influenced by awareness, self-reflection, and/or peer-pressure.

2. Students thinking and talking about ethics, when they didn't before. Then some of them carry this influence with them, as part of their character and intellect, going forward (like is one of the ideals of college education).

Also, maybe the second year of the poll, the sentiments are better-informed, because a lot more people have started paying more attention to the question of ethics of a company.

The perception breakdowns by college major would also be interesting, but maybe don't publish those, to reduce internal incentives to game the results. (Everyone knows some majors tend a bit more towards sociopathic than others, but some would rather that not be officials.)

bcjdjsndontoday at 4:22 PM

Hang on a minute, meta apparently didn't have the time to be checking the content of adverts they get paid to serve when it was child porn, what's changed all of a sudden?

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bastard_optoday at 3:10 PM

I wonder what would happen posting these ads to truth social and twitter.

ginkgotreetoday at 3:59 PM

Social Media, and specifically Facebook / Meta, will go down in history as one of the worst developments in technology in the 21st century. As Frances Haugen stated in her testimony, Mark Zuckberg needs to be removed from the helm at Meta.

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fdeagetoday at 3:49 PM

"Anxiety. Depression. Withdrawal. Self-harm. These aren't just teenage phases — they're symptoms linked to social media addiction in children."

Seems like they couldn't write even three lines without a LLM.

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varispeedtoday at 4:26 PM

I wonder when they'll tackle literal porn showing up in Instagram shorts. If you want to browse Instagram in public, forget it.

guywithahattoday at 2:57 PM

There is a humor that these law firms won a case against Meta and the first thing they did is give them advertising money won from the court case. That said the ads sound pretty aggressive, and from what I've read it sounds like it wasn't a very fair decision. I understand the conflict of interest but I have sympathies for Meta here

pcardosotoday at 2:32 PM

Reminds me of Carl Sagan’s Contact, where Haden, the millionaire funding Ellie’s work, made a TV ad blocker and then sued the TV companies when they refused to play ads for his product.

I wonder if that is what will happen next.

mrwhtoday at 2:18 PM

Meta wants to be an impartial platform only and exactly when it suits them to be.

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HumblyTossedtoday at 2:32 PM

Do photogs do that on purpose, or does Zuck really always have that sociopath stare?

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josefritzisheretoday at 3:10 PM

So they remove class action lawsuits but not pedos. Got it.

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neuroelectrontoday at 2:35 PM

Reminds me of ChatGPT insisting all news about OpenAI is unverified speculation.

k33ntoday at 1:43 PM

The idea that Meta is obligated to be so impartial that it must allow lawsuits against itself to be promoted on its own platform is a bit naive and utopian.

Its own TOS states that they won’t allow that.

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glaslongtoday at 3:41 PM

Thus begins another Streisand Effect meme campaign of

"MZ Is A Punk-Ass B

payed for by Person & Guy LLP"

skeeter2020today at 3:59 PM

Can't we all just agree there are no GOOD people in this situation? Meta, class-action lawyers, PE and big money that funds the lawsuits as a profit venture... The one thing they all appear to share: parasites extracting resources from their host.