Tech / Technology

Zuckerberg shot down multiple initiatives to address youth mental health online, claims a new lawsuit

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Newly unsealed documents in a lawsuit against Meta outline a history of rejecting opportunities to address youth mental wellbeing.
A blue and black illustration of Mark Zuckerberg in profile.

Still embroiled in lawsuits over the company’s slow move to address its platforms’ effects on young users, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is now under fire for reportedly blocking attempts to address Meta’s role in a worsening mental health crisis.

According to newly unsealed court documents in a Massachusetts case against Meta, Zuckerberg was made aware of ongoing concerns about user mental wellbeing in the years prior to the Wall Street Journal investigation and subsequent Congressional hearing. The CEO repeatedly ignored or shut down suggested actions by Meta’s top executives, including Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri and Facebook’s president of global affairs Nick Clegg.

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Specifically, Zuckerberg passed on a 2019 proposal to remove popular beauty filters from Instagram, which many experts connect to worsening self image, unreachable standards of beauty, and perpetuated discrimination of people of color. Despite support for the proposal among other Instagram heads, the 102-page court document alleges, Zuckerberg vetoed the suggestion in 2020, saying he saw a high demand for the filters and “no data” that such filters were harmful to users. A meeting of mental health experts was allegedly cancelled a day before a meeting on the proposal was scheduled to take place.

The documents also include a 2021 exchange between Clegg and Zuckerberg, in which Clegg forwarded a request from Instagram’s wellbeing team asking for an investment of staff and resources for teen wellbeing, including a team to address areas of “problematic use, bullying+harassment, connections, [and Suicide and Self-Injury (SSI)],” Insider reports.

While Clegg reportedly told Zuckerberg that the request was “increasingly urgent,” Zuckerberg ignored his message.

The Massachusetts case is yet another legal hit for Meta, after being lambasted by state governments, parent coalitions, mental health experts, and federal officials for ignoring internal research and remaining complicit in social media’s negative effect on young users.

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On Oct. 25, a group of 41 states and the District of Columbia sued Meta for intentionally targeting young people using its “infinite scroll” and algorithmic behavior and pushing them towards harmful content on platforms like Instagram, WhatsApp, Facebook, and Messenger.

In 2022, Meta faced eight simultaneous lawsuits across various states, accusing Meta of “exploiting young people for profit” and purposefully making its platforms psychologically addictive while failing to protect its users.

Meta’s not the only tech or social media giant facing potential legal repercussions for its role in catalyzing harmful digital behavior. The state of Utah’s Division of Consumer Protection (UDCP) filed a lawsuit against TikTok in October, claiming the app’s “manipulative design features” negatively effect young people’s mental health, physical development, and personal life. Following a similar case from a Seattle public school district, a Maryland school district filed a lawsuit against nearly all popular social platforms in June, accusing the addictive properties of such apps of “triggering crises that lead young people to skip school, abuse alcohol or drugs, and overall act out” in ways that are harmful to their education and wellbeing.

Since the 2021 congressional hearing that put Meta’s youth mental health concerns on public display, the company has launched a series of new parental control and teen safety measures, including oversight measures on Messenger and Instagram intended to protect young users from unwanted interactions and reduce their screen time.

Tech / Technology

A cheaper Samsung Galaxy Z Fold FE is coming in 2024

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Get ready for a cheaper Samsung Galaxy Z Fold FE phone in 2024.
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip on a gray background

There’s plenty of time before the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 makes its debut next summer, but for those who are more money cautious in the ever-inflating market of smartphones, a cheaper option may be on its way.

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According to an analysis from Trendsforce, thanks to a decline in the global smartphone market (jeez, I wonder why), Samsung may be considering a cheaper version of its foldable phone. The belief from sites like Tom’s Guide is that the consumer electronics giant will market this new phone as part of its Galaxy Z Fold or Z Flip line. The rumored release for this would be sometime in 2024, and it will be a “mid-range market” smartphone.

What this means, price-wise, is that we can expect this cheaper Samsung foldable to be around $400 to $500, but that’s doubtful. The renewed interest in foldables in recent years has not made them cheap, with the current Galaxy Z Fold 5 costing almost $1,800 and a Z Flip 5 costing $1,000.

It’s expensive to make foldable phones, but according to a Tom’s Guide interview with a Samsung executive, the price to make them foldable is coming down. So inevitably, that means in the future, we’ll definitely see foldable smartphones on cheaper displays.

How cheap is a great question, though, and without much information regarding this rumored Galaxy model, there’s not much to say at this time. For now, as with all rumors, it’s best to treat this news as hearsay until confirmed by Samsung itself.

Tech / Technology

Apple reportedly pauses iOS 18 development to focus on bugs

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Apple is reportedly pausing development of its upcoming iOS 18 software to focus on bugs.
Apple logo

Apple has taken the step of temporarily pausing development of next year’s iOS 18 to focus on fixing bugs in the code.

This is according to a new report by Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, who claims the delay was internally announced to employees last week.

The version of iOS that’s currently available to the public is iOS 17.1.1, but Apple is already at work on iOS 18, which is likely to be launched in 2024. However, early versions of iOS 18 were so buggy that Apple decided to halt further development until the company’s engineers iron out the bugs and improve the software’s performance.

The report calls the move “rare” and “unusual,” while noting that Apple’s recent releases weren’t as buggy — though we’re not sure all users would agree, given the amount of bugs found since iOS 17’s launch.

The pause in development will reportedly only last a week, after which work on new features will resume.

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The ‘cheap’ Vision Pro — 3 features Apple is reportedly dropping from the headset

The report also claims that Apple briefly stopped the development of iOS 17.4, which is due for a release in March. Finally, the delay also affected the development of Apple’s visionOS, which is the software platform for the company’s upcoming Vision Pro headset. However, the delays were brief, and are unlikely to postpone consumer releases of any software.