Here’s a roundup of several overlooked and underrated travel essentials, including July’s Packing Cells and Twelve South’s AirFly.
Zuckerberg shot down multiple initiatives to address youth mental health online, claims a new lawsuit
Newly unsealed documents in a lawsuit against Meta outline a history of rejecting opportunities to address youth mental wellbeing.
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.
Meta’s moderation failures incite hate and human rights abuses, according to Amnesty International
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.
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.
Y Combinator-backed Ole delivers luxury fashion items in 50 minutes
Ole (pronounced “o-lay”), an on-demand fashion app that promises to deliver designer clothing to you in less than an hour, recently closed a $1.5 million funding round, the […]
Instagram is finally testing a feature to let you turn off read receipts for DMs
Instagram is finally testing a feature that will let users turn off read receipts for Instagram DMs. This way, even if you have read someone’s message, they won’t […]
01 Advisors, founded by Dick Costolo and Adam Bain, just closed on $395M more
You might imagine that if two former Twitter chieftains and a longtime C-suite Facebook exec agreed to build a venture firm together, they would chase after nascent social […]
PSA: Your chat and call apps may leak your IP address
Your favorite messaging and calling app could reveal your IP address to the person on the other end of a call. And that, essentially, is because most chat […]
New Facebook Stories API helps creators share directly from third-party desktop or web apps
Meta is introducing a new API that makes it easier to create and share a Facebook Story directly from a third-party desktop or web app. The social networking […]
Instagram spotted developing a customizable ‘AI friend’
Instagram has been spotted developing an “AI friend” feature that users would be able to customize to their liking and then converse with, according to screenshots shared by […]
Connectly taps automation to nudge shoppers to complete purchases
Most consumers interact with e-commerce brands through social media, text and email. Brands reach out with promotions and discounts. But the engagement and read rates tend to be […]
Meta is bringing its Telegram-like broadcast channels to Facebook and Messenger
Meta is bringing its Telegram-like “broadcast channels” feature to Facebook and Messenger after rolling it out to Instagram and WhatsApp earlier this year. The company announced today that […]