It also shows what’s at stake for them- what they have to lose. A billion dollar company doesn’t write $2MM checks to teenagers on a whim. Someone did the math, and decided that whatever those kids had to say would cost Meta more than paying them all off.
I think it boils down to this- Meta makes money through engagement algorithms. They keep you scrolling and scrolling for hours, and the longer you scroll the more ads you see. And the more people are scrolling, the more people there are on the platform as a target audience so the more creators are on the platform.
But that comes at a cost. Not for Meta, but for the young impressionable people that get sucked into endless scrolling and believing that the fake lifestyles and appearance of ‘influencers’ are the way to be happy.
Meanwhile there is no downvote button. So the worst of the toxic crap gets seen by everybody and of course people react to it and call those people out but as far as Meta is concerned that’s just more engagement on their platform.
Point is, they have to know this is happening. They aren’t stupid. And if they know they are causing harm to kids and keep doing it anyway, then they are in big big big big big trouble. Either through court judgments or additional regulation.
And so if they can stop that from happening by writing a few million dollar checks, that’s a bargain.
It also shows what’s at stake for them- what they have to lose. A billion dollar company doesn’t write $2MM checks to teenagers on a whim. Someone did the math, and decided that whatever those kids had to say would cost Meta more than paying them all off.
I think it boils down to this- Meta makes money through engagement algorithms. They keep you scrolling and scrolling for hours, and the longer you scroll the more ads you see. And the more people are scrolling, the more people there are on the platform as a target audience so the more creators are on the platform.
But that comes at a cost. Not for Meta, but for the young impressionable people that get sucked into endless scrolling and believing that the fake lifestyles and appearance of ‘influencers’ are the way to be happy.
Meanwhile there is no downvote button. So the worst of the toxic crap gets seen by everybody and of course people react to it and call those people out but as far as Meta is concerned that’s just more engagement on their platform.
Point is, they have to know this is happening. They aren’t stupid. And if they know they are causing harm to kids and keep doing it anyway, then they are in big big big big big trouble. Either through court judgments or additional regulation.
And so if they can stop that from happening by writing a few million dollar checks, that’s a bargain.