Latest / Black Box Theory Podcast / BBT #11 Snippet | $375 Million Won't Fix This — But It's a Start
Transcript
- Malcolm: So according to New Mexico, of all places, according to New Mexico has ordered Metta to pay $375 million for misleading users over the safety of its platforms for children. So a jury that found that Metta, which owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, was liable for the way in which its platforms endanger children and expose them to sexually explicit material and contact with sexual predators. New Mexico attorney General Raul Torres said this verdict is historic. and marks the very first time that the state has successfully sued Metta over child safety issues. Spokeswoman for Metta, led by chairman and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg, said the company disagrees with the verdict and intends to appeal. She said, we work hard to keep people safe on our platforms and are clear about the challenges of identifying and removing bad actors and harmful content. We remain confident in our record of protecting teens online. 375 million. That's some. Thomas: Yes. Malcolm: That's definitely ⁓ a healthy find. But when you kind of think of it in the grand scheme of things that Metta company has a $1.5 trillion market cap with a net income, I think of last year, like $60 billion. It's hard to see that really. It's still a hefty find regardless of the market cap and how much revenue and income and what they balance is looking like. Thomas: That ain't nothing. Malcolm: That's still a hefty fine for any company to take on. The question here though is will Instagram, will this verdict, does the jury verdict actually change anything? They'll appeal, they'll settle, they'll pay a fine, you know, as it always goes. Will Instagram still be designed to keep you scrolling at 2 a.m. or is this just expensive theater while nothing fundamentally changes? Thomas: I I don't think anything's fundamentally changing. ⁓ If destroying people's lives is only worth $375 million or whatever the case is, which is, I'm not gonna say chump change, but you're ruining a whole future of people. You're exposing children to ⁓ explicit content and you wonder why people have the problems that they have. You look at the generation that grew up with this technology in the first place, pretty cooked, right? Like they're pretty fried. Like the brain, you crack it open, put it in the pan. It might sizzle half an egg because... only starting off about half the yolk in there to begin with. ⁓ So now you add on to this, if it's not AI, they don't care. So your kid could be scrolling Instagram, looking at virtual ⁓ videos, images, ⁓ but don't go touch that data center. They will allegedly strike you down where you stand. Malcolm: Yeah, I don't know bro. think that they're just like... I think if anything this kind of makes like a... Hopefully, more and more people kind of come out and speak about how these by design platforms have caused some type of danger to their life. think that hopefully more people come out about it and that more of these lawsuits and kind of jurisdictions are more frequent and actually more successful going forward because I think that this... kind of sets the precedent for future. ⁓ This is not the only person in the world, know, rest in peace to the ⁓ people affected, you know, from like social media, you know, whether it's self harm, ⁓ meeting strangers online, like, you know what I'm None to that. But hopefully this kind of sets a precedent for future, ⁓ you know, verdicts and things like that. But I mean, like I said, when I think about it, and like I said, I look at this in the grand scheme of things. Over 3.5 billion people use Meta's ecosystem every single day. This is over 40 % of the entire world's population. So between Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, or Messenger, 3.5 billion people, bro. Thomas: Mm-hmm. And this is $375 million, not even a dollar a person. Malcolm: That's, bro, that is so scary to think about, bro. That's scary to think about, bro. So I know for a fact that this is not the only young woman affected by this addictive design and some of its implications. But I think that, I don't think this fundamentally changed anything. haven't seen meta, because the whole, their business model is trapping people's attention. So if you do something to change that model where Instagram is less addictive or WhatsApp, Messenger. Facebook are less addictive and easy to use. I don't see them going in just because of this and, you know, changing all the underlying like fundamentals and kind of core concepts of what makes them such a successful company and business now. When you are touching or at least getting access to three and a half billion people every single day, I don't think whatever amount of money you have to pay is going to make you go and really... like reconsider how you have algorithms and how you have things set up. no, ⁓ it's scary for sure that these things happen, and they happen as often as they do. ⁓ I don't know, man. We used to do it. Thomas: They don't care. You're talking