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Dr Rob Nicholls: Sydney University Associate Professor on Meta reaching settlement over social media case · Best of Business

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from Newstalk ZB.
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  Speaker 2: Follow this and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeartRadio. Now,
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  Speaker 2: this is quite significant. Read the social media and the kids.
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  Speaker 2: Meta is the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, has
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  Speaker 2: reached a settlement deal in that big lawsuit that's been
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  Speaker 2: brought by the 29 US states. The company will pay
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  Speaker 2: up to 18 billion US dollars in reparations and has
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  Speaker 2: agreed to strictly limit teens' usage of Facebook and Instagram,
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  Speaker 2: including a two-hour-a-day maximum limit and curfews, like no access
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  Speaker 2: at all from midnight to 6am. Dr Rob Nicholls is
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  Speaker 2: an Associate Professor of Governance and Regulation at the University
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  Speaker 2: of Sydney and with us. Hi Rob.
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  Speaker 1: Hi there.
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  Speaker 2: Do you think that now they've said they're going to
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  Speaker 2: do these things, that they actually will do these things?
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  Speaker 1: I think they will, and the reason I think they
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  Speaker 1: will is if they don't, they'll be in contempt of court.
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  Speaker 1: So this was clearly something that had been negotiated for
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  Speaker 1: a long time. and probably one that Meta thought would
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  Speaker 1: be settled on the courthouse steps rather than a week
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  Speaker 1: and a half into the trial.
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  Speaker 2: They're doing this, obviously, because they were going to lose
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  Speaker 2: the case, right? Or the case was going to dig
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  Speaker 2: up some really embarrassing stuff.
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  Speaker 1: I think even yesterday, when they had the head of
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  Speaker 1: Instagram saying, oh, well, we have these safety systems in
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  Speaker 1: to help kids, or what percentage of people actually use it? well, 1.8%
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  Speaker 1: and that was the best of them. So yeah, they
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  Speaker 1: weren't on a really great track. But again, that might
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  Speaker 1: be because both sides knew that there was a negotiation
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  Speaker 1: in the wings and ready to be settled.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, now somebody's pointed out to me these limitations that
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  Speaker 2: will really reduce how much kids are on the app.
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  Speaker 2: are only for the app, so the kids can get
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  Speaker 2: around it by then logging on to the website. Is
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  Speaker 2: that the case?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, it is, and that's a weird feature of the
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  Speaker 1: US law. So in the US, Insta and all of
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  Speaker 1: the social media apps and Google and TikTok, they're not
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  Speaker 1: responsible for third-party content. So if you say something on
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  Speaker 1: Facebook your Instagram feed, Meta's not responsible. What they are
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  Speaker 1: responsible for is the app. And so it's the addictive
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  Speaker 1: features of the app that this court case is about.
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  Speaker 1: So yeah, you can get around it all by going
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  Speaker 1: to the web instead. But that's pretty inconvenient and certainly
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  Speaker 1: doesn't work terribly well on a phone. Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: Hey, thank you very much, Rob. I appreciate your expertise.
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  Speaker 2: Rob Nicholls, Associate Professor of Governance and Regulation at the
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  Speaker 2: University of Sydney.