Social Media

Social media firms face legal reckoning over mental health harms to kids

For years, social media companies have disputed allegations that they harm children's mental health through deliberate design choices that addict kids to their platforms and fail to protect them from sexual predators and dangerous content. Now, these tech giants are getting a chance to make their case in courtrooms around the country, including before a jury for the first time. Some of the biggest players from Meta to TikTok are facing federal and state trials that seek to hold them responsible for harming children's mental health. The lawsuits have come from school districts, local, state and the federal government as well as thousands of families. Two trials are now underway in Los Angeles and in New Mexico, with more to come. The courtroom showdowns are the culmination of years of scrutiny of the platforms over child safety, and whether deliberate design choices make them addictive and serve up content that leads to depression, eating disorders or suicide. Experts see the reckon

Datanomics: India's fake news challenge grows amid rising AI misuse

Misinformation rises sharply despite laws and fact checks

UK to force tech companies to take down abusive images in 48 hours

Companies that fail to remove the content in time could be fined as much as 10 per cent of their global revenue or have their service blocked in the UK, the government said

Zuckerberg testifies at trial accusing social media of harming teens

Mark Zuckerberg and opposing lawyers dueled in a Los Angeles courtroom on Wednesday, where the Meta CEO answered questions about young people's use of Instagram, his congressional testimony and internal advice he's received about being "authentic" and not "robotic." Zuckerberg's testimony is part of an unprecedented social media trial that questions whether Meta's platforms deliberately addict and harm children. Attorneys representing the plaintiff, a now 20-year-old woman identified by the initials KGM, claim her early use of social media addicted her to the technology and exacerbated depression and suicidal thoughts. Meta Platforms and Google's YouTube are the two remaining defendants in the case, which TikTok and Snap have settled. Beginning his questioning, the plaintiff's attorney Mark Lanier laid out three options of what people can do regarding vulnerable people: help them, ignore them, or "prey upon them and use them for our own ends." Zuckerberg said he agrees the last opti

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg set to testify in watershed social media trial

Mark Zuckerberg will testify in an unprecedented social media trial that questions whether Meta's platforms deliberately addict and harm children. Meta's CEO is expected to answer tough questions on Wednesday from attorneys representing a now 20-year-old woman identified by the initials KGM, who claims her early use of social media addicted her to the technology and exacerbated depression and suicidal thoughts. Meta Platforms and Google's YouTube are the two remaining defendants in the case, which TikTok and Snap have settled. Zuckerberg has testified in other trials and answered questions from Congress about youth safety on Meta's platforms, and he apologised to families at that hearing whose lives had been upended by tragedies they believed were because of social media. This trial, though, marks the first time Zuckerberg will answer similar questions in front of a jury and, again, bereaved parents are expected to be in the limited courtroom seats available to the public. The cas

AI Impact Summit: Age-based social media curbs on table, says Vaishnaw

Ashwini Vaishnaw said the government is in talks with social media firms on an age-based ban for children and deepfake controls, as AI investments near $200 billion and GPU procurement scales up

Social media firms resist Ramdev's plea, flag risks to satire and news

Platforms told the Delhi HC that Ramdev's takedown demands could curb satire, commentary and reportage, even as the court sought a consolidated list of posts he wants removed under personality rights

Meta secures patent to let deceased users' accounts remain active: Report

Meta's patent reportedly details how AI could simulate a deceased user's online presence - though the company says it has no plans to launch it

UK PM Starmer seeks powers to regulate online access for child safety

Britain's government said last month it would consult on an Australian-style social media ban for children under 16

Instagram chief grilled in court over profit versus mental health concerns

The trial is a test for thousands of similar cases with billions of dollars at stake, as well as the prospect that social media companies could be forced to change how they interact with youths

Social media not clinically addictive, says Instagram chief during US trial

Adam Mosseri, the head of Meta's Instagram, testified during a landmark social media trial in Los Angeles that he disagrees with the idea that people can be clinically addicted to social media platforms. The question of addiction is a key pillar of the case, where plaintiffs seek to hold social media companies responsible for harms to children who use their platforms. Meta Platforms and Google's YouTube are the two remaining defendants in the case, which TikTok and Snap have settled. At the core of the Los Angeles case is a 20-year-old identified only by the initials "KGM", whose lawsuit could determine how thousands of similar lawsuits against social media companies would play out. She and two other plaintiffs have been selected for bellwether trials - essentially test cases for both sides to see how their arguments play out before a jury. Mosseri said on Wednesday that it's important to differentiate between clinical addiction and what he called problematic use. The plaintiff's ..

MeitY's amendments on fake content to up risks for social media platforms

Experts say MeitY's amendment to the IT Rules for AI-generated content, which cuts takedown timelines to three hours, will increase compliance costs and risks for platforms

Instagram head Mosseri to testify on app design's effect on young users

Instagram head Adam Mosseri will testify in a US court case alleging features such as endless scroll encourage compulsive use among minors, raising mental health concerns

YouTube lawyer sees no addiction from half hour of videos a day in trial

Kaley, from Chico, California, was presented by her lawyers at the start of the trial against Google and Meta Platforms Inc. as the face of a scourge that has allegedly poisoned millions of Americans

Landmark US trial alleges Meta, YouTube 'engineered addiction' in children

Comparing social media platforms to casinos and addictive drugs, lawyer Mark Lanier delivered opening statements on Monday in a landmark trial in Los Angeles that seeks to hold Instagram owner Meta and Google's YouTube responsible for harms to children who use their products. Instagram's parent company, Meta and Google's YouTube face claims that their platforms addict children through deliberate design choices that keep kids glued to their screens. TikTok and Snap, which were originally named in the lawsuit, settled for undisclosed sums. Jurors got their first glimpse into what will be a lengthy trial characterised by duelling narratives from the plaintiffs and the two remaining defendants. Meta lawyer Paul Schmidt spoke of the disagreement within the scientific community over social media addiction, with some researchers believing it doesn't exist or that addiction is not the most appropriate way to describe heavy social media use. Lawyers representing YouTube will begin their ...

Govt directs platforms to label AI content, deploy checks on misuse

Platforms must also ensure that AI-generated material is clearly labelled and carries identifiers indicating its synthetic origin

SC defers Meta-WhatsApp privacy policy case hearing to February 23

The Supreme Court on Monday deferred to February 23 pleas of Meta Platforms Inc and WhatsApp against a Competition Commission of India (CCI) order imposing a penalty of Rs 213.14 crore over privacy policy. A bench comprising Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and N V Anjaria was told that senior advocate Kapil Sibal was unwell and hence the hearing should be adjourned. The bench said it would take up the pleas for passing an interim order on February 23. It permitted a litigant represented by senior advocate Arvind Datar to be made a party to the case. On February 3, the bench made strong observations against Meta Platforms Inc and WhatsApp, saying they could not "play with the right to privacy of citizens in the name of data sharing" and alleged that they were creating a monopoly in the market and committing theft of private information of customers. Decrying WhatsApp's privacy policy, the bench referred to "silent customers" who were unorganised

Social media's role must be assessed from lens of trust: Vaishnaw

The role of social media must be clearly evaluated from the lens of its impact on societal harmony and trust, that has been built and cemented over thousands of years, IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has said adding the latest Economic Survey has "rightly pointed out" issues around the online platforms. Noting that social media is now among the most important modes of information and outreach, the minister said while it offers benefits such as learning, its broader impact must be clearly assessed to ensure they add value to society, their content is trustworthy and the platforms do their due diligence. "We must make sure that our society remains a harmonious society and we should see the role of social media from that point of view. Is social media able to add to that trust or is it disrupting society? Is it adding value or is it creating friction in the society? That thing has to be very clearly evaluated," Vaishnaw said in a recent interview to PTI. He said social media has emerged a

Age limits for social media under review, govt to take a call: IT secy

The Economic Survey has made several suggestions on age-based access to online platforms, and the government will examine all the opinions and take a call on the issue, IT Secretary S Krishnan said on Thursday. Last week, the Economic Survey had said age-based access to online platforms should be considered while also cutting down online teaching to avoid digital addiction. The Survey, tabled in Parliament, had said online platforms should be made responsible for enforcing age verification, and simpler devices should be promoted for children to access educational content with safeguards to address the rising problem of digital addiction. It is pertinent to mention that the Ghaziabad triple suicide, where three minor sisters allegedly jumped to their deaths from a ninth-floor flat, has triggered an alarm over online gaming addiction and the Korean culture craze. "You have seen what the Economic Survey has to say. A number of views are being expressed. We will examine all the views a

Spanish govt plans to ban social media access for children under 16

Spain's move comes amid a broader European push to tighten regulations on children's online activity