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Meta should face FTC antitrust prosecution over purchase of Instagram and WhatsApp
Meta will face trial in the FTC’s antitrust case over the company’s acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp.
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Christmas is all about the kids. Sugar dances in their heads. Little children, their eyes all glowing. Sitting on Santa’s lap. Preparing gift lists. And while I know not everyone celebrates this holiday, there is still a universal call — no matter your religion — to do things that will excite our children.
However, it is my journalistic duty to drag you down. My 9-year-old grandson gave me his Christmas wish list, and at the top it says: “iPhone, iPad, Applewatch.” Only one will do. He feels disadvantaged because 42% of kids have a phone by age 10 and 87% of teens have an iPhone. Almost all of them have access to a computer.
As a result, almost all teens use the Internet daily, with 46% using the Internet “almost constantly.” America’s top doctor, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, declares: “Young people are bombarded with messages through media and popular culture that erode their sense of self-worth — telling them they’re not pretty enough, or famous enough, or smart enough, or rich enough.” “Enough.”
However, social media giants – Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok – are luring teens into dark places and deliberately addicting them to living online. It makes the media gobble up money.
“I don’t think we can just rely on hoping that platforms can solve this problem on their own,” Murthy insists. “They’ve had it for 20 years.”
Murthy has powerfully demonstrated the deterioration of adolescent mental health. Nearly 20% of teens have had a major depressive episode in the past year. One in three had a behavioral problem. Up to 30% of college students suffer from depression.
It is not surprising, then, that suicide is the second leading cause of death among teens and young adults, accounting for nearly 7,000 deaths, with 10% occurring in high school students. Suicide attempt Last year.
And while social media and the obsession with online communication aren’t the only culprits — think post-coronavirus trauma and a lack of mental health counseling — it’s certainly near the top of the list.
Is the First Amendment to blame? partially.
The First Amendment must bear some of the blame for failing us so miserably. It was meant to prevent the government from tampering with people’s right to speak and publish, and to encourage us to debate and fire angry shots at our leaders.
But this protection opened the door to a nightmare: cyberbullying, sexual harassment, sexting, defamation, and sextortion. Do the 45 words of the First Amendment make it impossible to prevent the abuses and behavior of tech giants?
The holidays make matters worse, as electronic devices worth $55 billion are sold during the festive season.
Don’t get me wrong: there are great possibilities on the Internet. We can research and learn. Talking and arguing. Play and entertain each other; And raise money for good causes. But we can’t ignore that the glass is also half empty, which is really dangerous.
Whistleblower testimony before Congress has been consistently clear: Social media platforms use algorithms to lure, addict, and get young people into trouble. Read their tragic stories at the nonprofit Parents for Safe Online Spaces: Parentssos.org. Stories bring tears, not joy.
Some problems would be easy to fix, and would not interfere with free speech protections. One solution: let users choose how their computers run algorithms. Empower users, not owners. And prevent major technology companies from using children’s trolling habits against them.
Congress last passed child protection legislation in 1998, but it is now moving closer to the Children’s Internet Safety Act, which passed the Senate by a vote of 91-3 in July. Invoice It is before the lame-duck House with bipartisan support.
But social media owners spent huge sums of money fighting the organization. After all, they took $11 billion in ad revenue from kids and teens in 2022 using the current algorithm-based model. And they have a slew of lawyers already fighting Biden’s antitrust lawsuits.
What will Trump’s surgeon general do?
Overcoming them will not be easy. It starts with disgruntled parents — and a Surgeon General who continues to fight this battle. Remember, it was the Surgeon General in the 1960s who got cigarette companies to admit that their products were poisoning the lungs of thousands of people. Multiple reports from the government have turned this tide.
But I’m not encouraged that the next Surgeon General — who will be appointed by the president-elect — will be so aggressive against Big Tech. Meta owner Mark Zuckerberg quietly went to Mar-a-Lago in late November to kiss the ring. Trump has long complained that Facebook has been unfair to him.
Did they discuss the government’s antitrust lawsuit against Meta in exchange for favors, such as treating Donald nicely? What they should be discussing is finding ways to fix algorithms versus negotiating monopoly issues. But don’t hold your breath when rich profiteers sit together.
Murthy insists it’s time to put a warning label on social media platforms. Keep it simple: Facebook and Instagram are bad for your health! By itself, it won’t completely keep kids away, but it will Reinforcing the principle behind the regulations.
Tech companies will argue that new laws and rules are not necessary. They insist that the science on the harmful effects of social media is far from settled. certainly. Cigarette companies once argued that smoking was good for your health.
The companies will also cite freedom of speech, arguing that the government cannot force them to carry a product warning, which is called “coerced speech.” They will claim that regulating algorithms amounts to censorship.
These are just smokescreen arguments, delaying tactics, and they are completely wrong. Content censorship is clearly unconstitutional, but since First Amendment protections do not apply in the same way to underage populations, content control for young people would not be unconstitutional. Australia recently took the bold step of banning children under 16 from using social media. A more moderate alternative is to have platforms limit the time children can spend there.
Regulating algorithms is not content control, it is just a way to bring platforms into compliance with safety guidelines. If we dream a little, it can be voluntary. Under significant pressure from various lawsuits, cigarette companies decided to stop targeting ads to young people, and their lawsuits were settled.
Let me bring it back to the kids. The Internet is where young people live, for better or worse. The best thing we can do at Christmas is to line their pockets with a series of fixes to protect them. If not, Congress would need to have some coal in its collective stockpile.
Rob Miraldi’s First Amendment writing has won numerous awards. He taught journalism at the State University of New York for many years. Email: rob.miraldi@gmail.com
