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Mark Zuckerberg to testify in landmark social media trial
- Alifatisk 9mo agoPaywall article, sadly but understandable
- swiftcoder 9mo agohttps://archive.ph/VQNcJ https://archive.ph/VQNcJ
- swiftcoder 9mo agoAs someone who was working there in a technical role while all this shit was going on... I've never breathed easier than the day I quit
- ben_w 9mo agoMmm. Way back in the early days, I attended an in-person Facebook developer event in London. This was just as they'd realised they'd gotten as many users as they were likely to be able to get, and were now talking about maximising time spent on the site. Immediately changed my opinion of them from "cool tech company" to "slimy digital crack dealers".
- Kenji 9mo ago[dead]
- mentalgear 9mo agoOf course he did: Zuckerberg has shown countless times that he's morally bankrupt: Each time, when given the choice (and regulatory landscape is gray) even with full knowledge of internal experts advising him against, he chose profits, even if "move fast and break things" includes the very society he and we all live in. (<- see current state of the world)
- CrossVR 9mo ago[flagged]
- dreadnip 9mo ago> It's his fiduciary duty to investors to choose the most profitable option even if that option is detrimental to society. Do you realize how insane this sounds?
- deafpolygon 9mo agoIt does, but without regulatory oversight— this is how capitalism works.
- actionfromafar 9mo agoWithout regulatory oversight, capitalism doesn't exist. In fact, cannot.
- nandomrumber 9mo agoWithout regulatory oversight, what evolves[1] is exactly what we have now. 1. At least in our case. And China in its case, and Europe in theirs, and Russia in Russia’s.
- actionfromafar 9mo agoYeah, well, that's incredibly accurate. :)
- nandomrumber 9mo agoWhat I mean is: the current standard is the result of anarchy. We had anarchy, people decide they could do better, iterated, and came up with this.
- 9mo ago
- JasonADrury 9mo agoVoters overrule countless well-being experts to keep alcohol available everywhere. This seems like entirely normal human behavior at every level of society, no? Of course asking Zuckerberg is a bit like asking a bartender, but we know very well that it's not only bartenders who'd be against stopping alcohol sales. It is strange to condemn Zuckerberg for doing this unless you're also willing to implement the all the other (vastly more important) advice from wellbeing experts that we as a society have pretty decisively rejected.
- abluecloud 9mo agoSo you're saying we should implement age restrictions until the person is deemed mature enough to understand what the implications of their decisions are?
- JasonADrury 9mo agoSure, why not? I don't use Instagram and I don't give a shit. Filters provide me absolutely zero joy. I'm only pointing out that the headline is describing perfectly normal human behavior.
- actionfromafar 9mo agoNot all bartenders would serve alcohol to anyone at at all times. But Z would, I'm sure.
- JasonADrury 9mo agoDiscussing whether or not Zuckerberg would do that seems like a better fit for some reddit gossip board than HN.
- Spacemolte 9mo agoSeems like a great analogy to me..
- 9mo ago
- brnt 9mo ago> They 'trust me'. Dumb fucks.
- 243341286 9mo ago[flagged]
- Devasta 9mo agoUnironically, Zuckerberg should be in the Hague. We tried people in Nuremberg for less than he has done in his life.
- fooker 9mo agoAh, but did you know almost all the rich Nazis got off silently without any fanfare? https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/may/18/nazi-billionaires-book-hitler-bmw-porsche https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/may/18/nazi-billionai...
- dgxyz 9mo agoI suggest anyone who hasn’t reads Careless People. Everyone I passed my copy around to has left Facebook almost instantly. Zuck is just one of the worst humans on the planet.
- shrubby 9mo agoI suggest we crowdfund a campaign to gift each employee this. It was a good read though nothing too surprising after following this saga from the McNamee Zucked to the Wylie /. Cambridge Analytica case. Wylies Mindfuck is another great one.
- onetokeoverthe 9mo ago[dead]
- rsynnott 9mo agoYeah, I think fo anyone who’d been keeping an eye on Facebook there was very little new there. I don’t remember any major revelations, but having it all presented in one shot is… well, it’s a thing.
- dgxyz 9mo agoWasted effort. I worked in an adjacent area. There’s a large supply of people without an ounce of morality who don’t give a shit if they are paid up. Anyone who cares or couldn’t be bought left already. I have a list of no hire/tainted companies now and they are on the list.
- arethuza 9mo agoCareless People is very good. However, I'm currently reading "Character Limit" about the acquisition of Twitter by Musk which I think is even more interesting. Does anyone have any recommendations for more books like these?
- dgxyz 9mo agoWill buy that today. Thanks for the recommendation.
- b112 9mo agoQuestions, as the article is paywalled and I don't know: * what in Earth is a "wellbeing expert". This title sounds entirely made up, and I doubt there is such a degree. If there is no degree, what were they basing their recommendations on? What research? Papers? If they have no formal schooling, what makes them experts or not? Were these just Meta employees? If they are, were other Meta employees equally skilled saying it was OK? Ah well. Maybe the article says.
- Sharlin 9mo agoWould you be equally sceptical if the heading of a similar lay article referred to "computer experts"? That's also a made-up title and there's no such a degree.
- ReptileMan 9mo agoHonestly yes I would. "Any man who must say 'I am the king' is no true king" . Same for any self titled expert. Or even worse - credentialist.
- Sharlin 9mo agoBut there are no self-titled experts here?! The phrase was chosen by the author or editor at FT. Presumably because you can’t fit everything in the headline. "Experts" is an entirely standard word to use in a headline.
- dragonwriter 9mo ago“wellbeing” used as if it were the label of a discipline is almost invariably used for grifts that are intended to be viewed by the audience targeted as being in either (or straddling both) the physical or psychological health spaces, but where the grifter wants to avoid explicitly claiming to be operating in either of those spaces for liability or other reasons.
- Brybry 9mo agohttps://archive.md/VQNcJ https://archive.md/VQNcJ (sadly this isn't the updated version with the 18 wellbeing experts line) But basically it's about Zuckerberg testimony and evidence in an ongoing court case in California. I believe case 23SMCV03371 but there's a number of coordinated cases. [0] From reading other articles[1][2][3][4] about the testimony I think "18 wellbeing experts" is referring to external consultation funded by Meta/Instagram that appears to have overwhelmingly turned up concerns about the impact beauty filters could have on young girls (who weren't even supposed to be on the platform in the first place). There's some stuff with internal Meta employees also raising concerns. I didn't see anything about internal Meta employees saying it was ok but of course it's hard to know without free access to actual court transcripts and exhibits. Zuckerberg himself said they decided to allow the filters but not recommend them and that not allowing the filters would have been paternalistic. [0] https://www.lacourt.ca.gov/pages/lp/access-a-case/tp/find-case-information/cp/os-civil-case-access https://www.lacourt.ca.gov/pages/lp/access-a-case/tp/find-ca... [1] https://www.wunc.org/2026-02-18/zuckerberg-grilled-about-metas-strategy-to-target-teens-and-tweens https://www.wunc.org/2026-02-18/zuckerberg-grilled-about-met... [2] https://www.wired.com/story/mark-zuckerberg-testifies-social-media-addiction-trial-meta/ https://www.wired.com/story/mark-zuckerberg-testifies-social... [3] https://www.kten.com/news/business/takeaways-mark-zuckerberg-testifies-for-the-first-time-ever-on-social-media-and-children-s/article_d6ccc163-d80e-5f29-8e6b-73df0e01a3b3.html https://www.kten.com/news/business/takeaways-mark-zuckerberg... [4] https://www.wandtv.com/news/national/zuckerberg-testifies-at-trial-accusing-social-media-firms-of-addicting-kids-to-their-platforms/article_26ccf316-1d23-5136-b68e-f0491d1f73aa.html https://www.wandtv.com/news/national/zuckerberg-testifies-at...
- PaulRobinson 9mo agoSomebody should tell him that the character of Mr Burns in The Simpsons was meant to be a satirical parody of evil tycoons, not a role model. I'd wager that one day, his grandchildren (possibly even children), are going to call for his arrest and imprisonment, as a means to stop themselves being judged for his sins.
- interludead 9mo agoHistory shows it's pretty rare for tech founders to be personally punished in the dramatic way people imagine
- Baader-Meinhof 9mo ago> Mark Zuckerberg overruled 18 wellbeing experts to keep beauty filters on Insta Is there a source for this? The article doesn't seem to mention it. On that topic, should we update the title to match the article title?
- 1vuio0pswjnm7 9mo agoFrom the article: "Mark Zuckerberg told a jury on Wednesday that he overruled concerns about teen wellbeing from staff and 18 experts to lift a ban on Instagram beauty filters because he was concerned about "free expression"." "Instagram temporarily suspended beauty filters - which digitally alter people's appearance - to conduct a review of the features in 2019. All of the 18 experts Meta hired concluded they presented a wellbeing issue."
- Meekro 9mo agoI don't see the problem. He's offering a completely legal product to an eager audience. If people want to propose banning social media in some capacity, that could and should be voted on-- but Zuck isn't violating any legal or moral law I've ever heard of, and he shouldn't have to guess what products will be illegal in 20 years and preemptively withdraw them. If it's harming your mental health, stop using it. The "Delete App" button is right there.
- benob 9mo agoSame with asbestos, I mean what could go wrong in 20 years?
- sega_sai 9mo agoThe main discussion here about offering this for kids. So, no! "if it's harming your mental health, stop using it" is not appropriate.
- conductr 9mo agoMaybe kids shouldn’t be using it. It’s reaching the point where parents aren’t doing their jobs so the government should ban it to protect the kids. Just like tobacco, alcohol and porn we didn’t make it cancer and addiction free or remove the nudity - we banned kids from accessing it
- Meekro 9mo agoBanning something just for kids is an easy win for any politician, since that's one of the few groups that can't punish you in the next election. For that reason alone, I assume we'll get some law within 5-15 years mandating that Facebook ban kids. I assume the kids will trivially bypass it the block, or switch to foreign social media, and we'll go back to business as usual.
- direwolf20 9mo agoNot everything that's legal is good. One presumes that if it's found to be bad and Congress isn't extremely corrupt (as if) it'll become illegal.
- ReptileMan 9mo ago[flagged]
- jonathanstrange 9mo agoIt's unlikely that Zuckerberg is more of an expert on any topic, though, except perhaps BJJ. His educational background is literally just "briefly attended Harvard College."
- draw_down 9mo ago[dead]
- 0dayz 9mo agoHow exactly do you determine this? On top of this how do we know you're not a quack snake oil salesman? Are you a welness expert?
- ReptileMan 9mo agoThe softer the science, the greater the bullshit. And wellness is slightly below astrology on the scientific scale.
- 0dayz 9mo agoAnd exactly what is soft about wellness? How does it differ from psychology or sociology?
- ReptileMan 9mo agoAll of those disciplines are so full of shit that if you give them an enema you could bury what remains in a walnut shell. Let's start with the replication crisis.
- Hikikomori 9mo agoDid meta hire 18 snake oil salesmen they found on instagram to use as "wellbeing experts" or did they hire professionals like psychiatrists that got this label as a group?
- CafeRacer 9mo agoSo the new wave of reptiloid zuck memes incoming.
- deleted 9mo ago[deleted]
- interludead 9mo agoRegardless of the verdict, I suspect the long-term impact will be more about design norms than liability
- qwertox 9mo agoThere was a blip of time when Mark Zuckerberg seemed to be somewhat human, maybe the last couple of years, but since then he's shown what kind of guy he really is, that he doesn't really care. He really had a chance.
- mapotofu 9mo agoIt sounds like you were duped into thinking his Augustinian PR campaign showed any sense of humanity. This is not a good person- Zuck is a freak and a hypocrite and deserves all the worst treatment from all of us - including NOT using their products.
- 1vuio0pswjnm7 9mo agoOriginal HN title: Mark Zuckerberg overruled 18 wellbeing experts to keep beauty filters on Insta
- janlucien 9mo ago[dead]
- burnt-resistor 9mo agoThe Epstein Harvard roofie class, of which Zuck is a product, views women and girls as nonhuman property, so of course beauty filters were kept.
- 1vuio0pswjnm7 9mo agoHow does US products liability law work (personal injury plaintiffs) How does US public nuisance law work (local government/school district plaintiffs) For example, what are the claims what do the plaintiffs have to prove to succeed what about strict liability what about causation what about duty to warn and so on Here are the master complaints for (a) the personal injury plaintiffs https://dn710108.ca.archive.org/0/items/gov.uscourts.cand.401490/gov.uscourts.cand.401490.138.0.pdf https://dn710108.ca.archive.org/0/items/gov.uscourts.cand.40... (b) the local government/school district plaintiffs https://dn710108.ca.archive.org/0/items/gov.uscourts.cand.401490/gov.uscourts.cand.401490.729.0.pdf https://dn710108.ca.archive.org/0/items/gov.uscourts.cand.40... The defendants have not had much success in dismissing any of the plaintiffs' claims nor in excluding plaintiffs' experts' testimony (so far) e.g., https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cand.401490/gov.uscourts.cand.401490.2750.0.pdf https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cand.40... In the Google antitrust litigation Google resorted to unusual, creative tactics to avoid a jury trial Will a jury get to decide on the plaintiffs' claims here, or will the remaining defendants settle We will know soon enough Then HN can return to 100% "AI" topics But a substantial portion of the evidence gathered in this litigation will live on in the public record; not everything is sealed There was a time before so-called "social media" when personal websites did not force visitor to "sign in", when personal websites did not have millions of pages, let alone millions of pages authored by other people, and when a third party's personal website was not used by members of the public to communicate with each other "directly" while being surveilled by the website's operator, who aims to sell them out to advertisers The internet is still in its infancy. It's still evolving
- 1vuio0pswjnm7 9mo agoWorks where archive.ph is blocked, no CAPTCHAs, no Javascript: printf '%s\r\n%s\r\n%s\r\n\r\n' \ "GET /content/0c6d8ff6-f207-431b-bfb9-1d8b42bb4b6d HTTP/1.0" \ "host: www.ft.com" \ "user-agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Java) outbrain" \ |busybox ssl_client www.wsj.com >1.htm firefox ./1.htm