Meta Lobbies Congress For Protection From Child-Harm Lawsuits (aol.com)
- Reference: 0183973758
- News link: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/06/18/2342227/meta-lobbies-congress-for-protection-from-child-harm-lawsuits
- Source link: https://www.aol.com/articles/exclusive-meta-lobbies-congress-protection-200438000.html
> Meta has [2]lobbied the U.S. Congress for legal immunity from child-harm claims tied to social media products such as Instagram, as it faces thousands of lawsuits from young users and their families, according to a source familiar with the matter and proposed legislative language reviewed by Reuters. If adopted by lawmakers and passed into law as part of the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) under consideration in the U.S. Senate, such a provision could undermine thousands of lawsuits against Meta and other online platforms over harms to children. Meta and Google's YouTube face a combined $6 million in damages after they lost the first case at trial early this year. While legislators have given no indication of adopting the language, the lobbying effort shows the kind of legal protections Meta is seeking amid the biggest attempt to regulate online platforms in the U.S. since the 1990s.
Meta has reportedly proposed the language in exchange for dropping its opposition to KOSA. Under the law, platforms would be required to mitigate harms to minors tied to features such as infinite scrolling, notifications, and appearance-altering filters.
[1] https://slashdot.org/~schwit1
[2] https://www.aol.com/articles/exclusive-meta-lobbies-congress-protection-200438000.html
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Epstein, the biggest abuser of all, was a Democrat.
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ISTM that the perps are most often social conservatives, such as leaders of regressive religions.
If that's the case, I shudder to think what it was like in the Middle Ages. Or in certain countries today.
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> ISTM that the perps are most often social conservatives, such as leaders of regressive religions.
> If that's the case, I shudder to think what it was like in the Middle Ages. Or in certain countries today.
In the middle ages Kings were publicly admitting they were marrying children. Though in "civilized" societies they supposedly waited to start the actual intercourse until they girl had her first period, which could range from twelve to fifteen or so. In not so civilized? It was whenever the husband/leader lost patience or got randy.
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Seems to me it's the GOP that is obsessed with this issue and with what's in kids' pants. They're the ones constantly stoking the culture wars.
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You’re the only person thinking about trans children. Is there something on your mind?
In related news, (Score:2)
I hear that the National Street-level Drug Pushers Association is lobbying Congress for immunity against drug laws.
If asked to say which one I sympathize more with - the pushers of physiological drugs or the pushers of psychological drugs - I might have to flip a coin. OTOH the street guys are at least up-front about what they're doing and their motivations, so I might be tempted to give them the pass so I could watch the likes of Zuck hanging and twisting in the wind.
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Small difference: drugs are known to be harmful, and illegal. The harm of social media to developing children has only recently been documented
If it is known that social media harms kids, then doesn't the state share some of the blame? Why is there no law?
If it is not known (or only recently came to light), can you really blame the social media companies? You could blame them for trying to block relevant legislation, but not for harm done in the past.
If the harmful effects were known to the companies
so fuck em (Score:1)
"Does our product harm children? Yes, obviously, absolutely. But look at all the millionaires we've made! There's gotta be like 10 new actual nonpoor people now. These children are the backbone of societal growth!"
I don't even want to know the real number.
Poor Meta. (Score:2)
They missed their window of opportunity. A few months ago they could have just bribed Trump into giving them blanket immunity forever. Now that Trump is failing in so many ways that even Republicans are starting to balk at bowing to his every whim, Meta is actually going to have to play the game the old fashioned way and figure out how to bribe all of congress to get their immunity. Poor babies. They should have planned ahead. They could have saved themselves a lot of time and money.
Child abuser asks for immunity? (Score:2)
They got immunity for things they published and pushed on people on the grounds that others said it, they were just the promoters and publishers.
We finally figured out how to sue them not for publishing, but for their massive and unethical attempts to push and promote what others said.
So now they ask for immunity.
No.
They are the problem. They are guilty. Note, they didn't HAVE to be the problem. They could have promoted things based on truth and value rather than how much attention they got by being out
How about no? (Score:3)
Where are the usual "think of the kids!" politicians? I guess accepting kickbacks from Meta...
Re: (Score:1, Troll)
In related news Meta has agreed to paint the sickly green reflection pond in DC Meta blue. When asked for comment Mark Zuckerberg replied: Suck it plebs, I can buy justice .
When asked for further comment Trump was quoted as saying: Nobody can ace that cognitive test better than me. I was able to circle the giraffe faster than that loser Obama .
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s/giraffe/drain/
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> Where are the usual "think of the kids!" politicians? I guess accepting kickbacks from Meta...
Busy hiding their complicity in the muslim rape gang coverups.
Re:How about pedos? (Score:2)
In tomorrow's headlines:
Pedophile Lobbies Congress For Protection From Child-Harm Lawsuits
Oh wait, how silly of me. People who are not mega-corporations and trillionaire CEOs can't afford to spend [1]tens of millions on lobbying [axios.com].
Meta has knowingly (according to their own memos) harmed kids on their quest to harvest all human attention and all advertising dollars. Now they can invest a fraction of it to evade all consequences to them. There's a growing corpus of evidence that we are being slowly digested by an
[1] https://www.axios.com/2026/01/21/meta-big-tech-lobbying-spending-q4