Technology

My unpopular opinion is that social media is simply inherently incompatible with human nature. I don't think it's anyone's fault per se. It's like heroin in the sense that it doesn't matter how you distribute it - it's going to cause harm because hijacking our reward systems is the reason we use it in the first place. If you modify it so all that goes away, then what you're left with is water - and nobody wants that.

I don't know what the solution is, though. I don't think banning it is a solution, but I'm not sure how to square the harmfulness of it. It's not just kids it's bad for - it's everyone. And yeah, there are degrees to it - perhaps Lemmy is objectively better than an algorithm-based message board like Reddit, but something being better doesn't make it good. A non-toxic heroin that you can't OD on is also better than the alternative, but it's still going to be harmful. It's an arbitrary line we collectively just decide to draw somewhere - even though you could argue infinitely about nudging it one way or the other.

Are there any lawyers in here that can tell us how likely this thing is to succeed?

America really has a litigation culture, not because people are particularly fond of lawsuits, but because problems which are generally solved by legislative enactments or actions by regulatory bodies in other countries, aren't in the US, and thus the only way to find out who is right is to go to court.

Parents, right? That’s always the solution to platforms.

They are going to play the same old "freedom of choice" defense... aren't they.

It's not our fault we made it purposefully addictive, you could just not watch it. Hasn't this been the case with every tobacco-, soda-, fast food-, etc company. For example: the whole mainstream idea that weight gain is about caloric imbalance and not consuming what you eat. That is the mainstream because is helps the food companies sway public opinion for their cause. It's not our food that is horrible slop, disruptive to metabolism and engineered to make people eat more and more and still crave more, it's the people who could just not eat it and if they do eat it they could like run 10km to sweat off the effects of like one sandwich.

They always shift the responsibility to the individuals when they are pressed on their wrongdoings. "The freedom of choice" at large is the great lie that at large keeps society running and is the main defense against any complain why something is systematically shit and fundamentally inhuman, from food to labor markets.

Is anyone at threat of prison time or at least fines measured in the 100's of billions, if not trillions?

And the $multi billion companies will use every bent strategy available to delay, prevent, obfuscate evidence, attack & destroy witnesses etc. They will water down the impact to harm minimilisation outcome and so set out the precedent for how bad companies can be and get away with it. We really need that precedent to be seriously strong.