Comment on Meta and YouTube found liable in social media addiction trial; Ordered to pay woman $3 million

db2@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

• spongebue@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  I thought the same thing for a moment, until I realized that’s for one person. Now imagine a similar class action lawsuit. Of course it’s not realistic to expect that dollar amount multiplied by that many people, but it could be a pretty significant dent.

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  • Bluegrass_Addict@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    yes… yes it is realistic.

    the precedent is set that it costs 3million per person…

    these companies should get zero free passes. hit them with the only thing they care about…money. these companies, if law was actually useful, would have been shut down many manyany years ago, and CEO’s would have been jailed by now. if the law actually mattered that is…

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    • albert_inkman@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      The real takeaway here is not the dollar amount. It’s that a jury finally recognized the mechanism: these platforms are designed to hijack attention, especially for young users, and that design choice has consequences. The 3M is a start. What matters is whether this changes how they engineer engagement or just becomes a cost of doing business.

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    • roguetrick@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      the precedent is set that it costs 3million per person

      Far from it actually. If anything appeals may pare down damages and nonpunitive damages must be backed by actual calculations. The bigger point I think is this sort of case can survive.

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    • fodor@lemmy.zip ⁨23⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      3 million plus legal fees by the defense, so probably closer to 3.5 million.

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    • spongebue@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      I wasn’t commenting on what should morally or legally be. I’m just saying that if there’s, say, 1 million plaintiffs in a class action lawsuit it’s not realistic to expect 3 million dollars (minus attorneys fees) in each person’s bank account. That would be 3 trillion dollars, not including whatever punitive damages end up being. There’s a practical issue to be considered.

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    • 0x0@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      and CEO’s would have been jailed by now.

      I’m going to move to Iceland.

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      • Bluegrass_Addict@lemmy.ca ⁨23⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        what’s in Iceland?

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• brandon@piefed.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  There will be additional proceedings to determine the amount of punitive damages to apply as well. So this probably isn’t the entire judgement.

  Whether it survived appeal to establish a precedent for other complaints is another story.

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