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Mark Zuckerberg Encouraged Growth Over Child Safety, Ex-Meta Executive Testifies at Trial
A former engineering director at Meta Platforms testified on Wednesday that CEO Mark Zuckerberg fostered a culture that treated child safety as secondary to growth and engagement on Facebook and Instagram. Arturo Béjar, a vocal critic of Meta’s safety record, made the allegation during his second day of testimony in a landmark trial over claims brought by a coalition of states that could reshape Facebook and Instagram, some of the most popular apps on the planet.
California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey accuse Meta of designing the platforms to hook young users, fueling anxiety, depression and even suicide, and misleading consumers about their safety.
Those states and 25 others also accuse Meta of violating federal law by improperly collecting and using personal data of children under 13 while they used its platforms.
Experts have said the trial is the biggest legal test yet of social media’s effects on young users.
House Votes for Parental Access to Medical Records of Minor Children
Michigan Capitol Confidential reported:
A Michigan House bill would allow parents greater access to their minor children’s medical records. House Bill 5974, sponsored by Rep. Joseph Aragona, R-Clinton Township, passed the House in June with bipartisan support in a 61-46 vote.
Currently in Michigan, minors can approve certain medical interventions, such as treatment for mental health, prenatal and pregnancy-related healthcare, and substance abuse, all without a parent’s knowledge or input. Aragona did not respond to an email seeking comment, but he did post about the legislation on Facebook.
“This legislation restores parents’ access to their minor child’s medical records, ensuring they have the information they need to make informed decisions and advocate for their child’s health and well-being,” Aragona posted after the legislation passed the House June 25. “Parents are responsible for their children’s care, and they should have access to the medical information necessary to fulfill that responsibility.”
Aragona testified in favor of the bill before the Health Policy Committee in early June.
“Can an 11-year-old or 12-year-old purchase health insurance, drive a car, get themselves to this appointment and make payment for these types of services?” asked Rep. Jamie Thompson, R-Brownstown Township, who supports the legislation. Rep. Matthew Bierlein, R-Vassar, said a doctor last year required his 12-year-old child to use email to give permission for his parents to access his medical records. Bierlein noted that his child didn’t have an email account.
Senators Demand Answers From Tiktok About ‘Depraved’ Experiment
Two US senators have sent a letter to TikTok executives demanding answers about an experiment the company ran that withheld a safety feature from millions of users, including a teenager who died by suicide. The senators, co-sponsors of an online child safety bill, called TikTok’s decision to conduct the test “depraved.”
The existence of the experiment, discussed in detail in a confidential 2023 company document, was reported by Bloomberg Businessweek this month. It prompted the letter sent Wednesday by Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee and Connecticut Democrat Richard Blumenthal to TikTok Inc. Chief Executive Officer Shou Chew and Adam Presser, CEO of the company’s US spinoff.
“We write regarding disgusting new reports that TikTok knowingly withheld a critical safety measure for millions of American users — including children — in order to determine whether protecting users would impact its financial bottom-line,” the four-page letter began. The Businessweek story’s “appalling” revelations, the senators wrote, “raise serious questions about TikTok’s repeated assurances to Congress, parents and the American public that it prioritizes the safety and well-being of young people over profit.”
Dozens of Towns Reject AI Cameras That Track Your Every Move
Some Americans are saying “Get The Flock Out” to the widespread license plate cameras that record their movements and collect their data across the country. Flock Safety surveillance cameras have become a focal point for American concerns over technology and privacy across the U.S., Axios reported.
Communities such as Lago Vista, Texas, have explicitly condemned the cameras and voted to remove them, while other regions like Apache Junction, Arizona, still utilize the Flock systems to support law enforcement work. Police departments believe Flock cameras assist them in stopping crime, but critics at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), consider the cameras a mass surveillance project.
“I’ve been fighting mass surveillance for almost 25 years at the ACLU, and I really haven’t seen anything like the popular uprising against license plate scanning that we’re seeing now,” Jay Stanley, senior policy analyst with the ACLU’s Speech, Privacy and Technology Project told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “I think it reflects the fact that people really don’t like to be watched,” Stanley added. He explained that license plate recognition has been an ongoing issue since 2013.
TikTok Lawsuit Settlement Resolves Teen Social Media Addiction Claims
TikTok has settled three lawsuits brought by young people alleging the social media platform caused them mental health harm, a lawyer for the plaintiffs said. Joseph VanZandt of Beasley Allen Law Firm, who represents the plaintiffs, told Law360: “The three plaintiffs have resolved their claims against TikTok in principle, subject to the finalization of written settlement agreements.”
VanZandt added that each plaintiff still maintains claims against Meta, YouTube and Snap. Meta Platforms, Google and Snapchat remain defendants in the high-stakes October trials after Meta and Google lost a first-of-its-kind bellwether trial in Los Angeles Superior Court earlier this year, resulting in $6 million in damages.
The second bellwether trial, involving plaintiff R.K.C., was scheduled for July but was canceled after the plaintiff settled with TikTok, Snapchat and Google and dismissed the claims against Meta.
The Teens Taking on Data Centers
When Sadie Cisneros first heard about ChatGPT a couple of years ago, she figured it was harmless. Like many other high school students, Cisneros, 17, began using the chatbot regularly as a search engine and study aid. Then she saw something alarming on a friend’s Instagram story. A 300,000-square-foot data center — the sort of hulking, humming facility that powers A.I. technology — was slated to be built near her neighborhood in Pittsburg, Calif., on the eastern edge of the Bay Area.
As she read more about the project, she grew concerned about the amount of water it would consume and the potential for it to worsen the area’s air pollution. She worried that incessant noise from the data center would disrupt students at the middle school less than half a mile away from the proposed site.
So she wrote down her objections and read them aloud in a three-minute speech during a Pittsburg City Council meeting last month — her first real brush with civic engagement.
Millions of Comcast WIFI Routers Can Now Tell When You’re Moving Around the House
Comcast’s Xfinity is increasingly touting its WiFi routers as home security devices, and more people than ever can choose to give their ISP a better peek into their living room.
The company announced this week that it is rolling out Xfinity Shield, a cyber and home protection platform available to millions of customers nationwide at no extra cost.
The service bundles cybersecurity and parental controls with WiFi Motion, a feature that can turn existing WiFi equipment into motion detectors. “An opt-in feature, WiFi Motion uses the WiFi signal from a customer’s Xfinity Gateway to sense movement in their home — no cameras needed or recordings captured,” the company wrote in a press release.
Comcast says that WiFi Motion works by detecting changes in the radio frequency signals traveling between routers and WiFi-connected devices.
