00:01now it's been described as the largest consumer protection lawsuit in u.s. history bigger than
00:07the case against big tobacco in the 1990s this week in California meta the owner of Facebook
00:14and Instagram went on trial accused of deliberately designing its apps to be addictive to young people
00:21and then misleading the public about the technology safety so if successful the tech
00:26doesn't only stand to lose hundreds of billions of dollars in fines it could also be forced to
00:32fundamentally change how we experience the social media platforms so let's take a look at some of the
00:38details of the trial California Colorado Kentucky and New Jersey they are leading a coalition of some
00:4729 u.s. states in a jury trial that's set to last for about six weeks now these states are
00:53seeking
00:53to prove and I'm going to quote here meta concealed what it knew about the harm its products cause young
00:59people because looking away was more profitable and they're also demanding some big changes so let's
01:07take a look at some of them among them they want meta to implement age restrictions if you remember
01:12this is something that Australia has already implemented they're also demanding the removal
01:17of light counts and they want to end the so-called infinite scroll feature that it forever adds a new
01:22post into a feed now some of the plaintiffs want to go even further with their demands including they
01:31want the implementation of parental verification for teenagers changing the apps recommendation algorithm
01:37that feeds users more of what they've engaged with previously they want the removal of image filters that
01:43enhance a user's appearance in photos they also want an end to auto play for videos and no more
01:51disappearing posts you know like the ones that you see on Instagram stories now this isn't the first
01:56trial against meta just this month a New Mexico judge ordered the company to pay nearly 800 million dollars
02:04and make changes to its apps ruling that the company was fueling a mental health crisis among the state's
02:11children however meta has consistently denied the claims against it saying that there's no clear link between
02:18social media use by adolescents and a lack of well-being well let's get more on this trial with Professor
02:24Jeannie Patterson she's from the Center for AI and Digital Ethics from the University of Melbourne Jeannie thanks
02:30so much for taking the time to speak with us on weekend breakfast this morning it's a pleasure now meta's
02:36case
02:37is that there is no clinical diagnosis for social media addiction we also know that mental health is a very
02:44complex issue and not down to just one app so that being the case how strong is this case against
02:52meta
02:53um well I think the case is pretty strong because the smoking gun so to speak is there are some
02:59internal documents from meta where
03:02um executives acknowledged that they had done studies on the way in which the design of the algorithm
03:10appealed to young people uh so young people we know are impulsive um they're curious and meta had research
03:19which suggested that the infinite scroll um appealed directly to those sort of youthful characteristics
03:25and also had quite a lot of data on um the harms that were occurring correlated at least with young
03:34people who use this technology so your the your comment is quite right proving the causal connection
03:42between poor mental health and social media is difficult though there is our studies emerging but here
03:50we have at least an argument that made a new and had designed its platform specifically to target
03:57youth vulnerabilities which really moves the culpability question into a different category that's
04:02that's where that's the real foundation of this case isn't it where the meta deliberately used its
04:09products to target adolescents uh and this is where of course the similarities to big tobacco and even the
04:15opioid crisis in the u.s uh comes into play i wonder though what part does self-control or willpower
04:24come
04:24into play in all of this or is it the case that the tech odds are just against the users
04:31uh well um meta
04:33will certainly argue that it put in place protections um it had an age limit should young people under 13
04:41were not supposed to be on the platform meta would say you know to the extent that younger people
04:45join younger people joined younger adults younger children joined they were contrary to its own terms
04:51of service meta also argues that it put in place parental controls so there was responsibility
04:57and capability on parents to control so for me social media use and meta is also arguing there is no
05:05proven relationship between poor mental health um and the use of social media i would add that there's
05:13actually sort of a waterfall of arguments so the state attorney generals don't win on the negligence
05:19product liability argument they're also making arguments about misleading conduct that measure
05:26misrepresented the the safety of the technology and also that they were harvesting data from children
05:32under 13. look this is a huge case isn't it it's it will have huge implications for meta and social
05:38media
05:38users uh of course uh genie we've just outlined what the case is against meta and what the states actually
05:47want meta to do as someone who studies this field so intensely what do you think meta can do to
05:56at
05:57least try to meet some of those demands um well i think meta can do a lot to meet those
06:02demands as
06:03as we've we've heard earlier the very design of social media infinite scroll likes um the the filters
06:11that allow young people especially to change their appearance um all are problematic but not essential
06:17to um a social media app that you know allows people to communicate with their friends and colleagues
06:25and share information so it could change the business model but of course the business model is
06:30depending on advertising and the advertising is very much tied to people spending time on the app
06:36and uh also on collecting a lot of personal data to understand what kinds of ads are likely to appeal
06:44so meta can change the design of um its social media platforms but that does have an impact on its
06:51business model which is an advertising model that's how meta makes its money yeah it's all about the
06:57attention economy isn't it but as we become more aware of the sort of impact that you know infinite
07:04scrolling the autoplay and what social media actually does to not just for young kids but for all of us
07:10and and our attention and our well-being as well do you see a time when we will start to
07:16walk away from
07:17these platforms um ideally i'd say we'd see a time where people walk away from at least the more addictive
07:24um and harmful elements of the platforms i guess the flip side of that is we've kind of been socialized
07:30to use these platforms to communicate so if you're a casual worker often your shift will be sent through
07:36social media if you're in a sporting team you will find out information about where you're playing
07:42through social media parents groups use social media
07:45you
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