Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified this week in a case that could significantly affect the future of the social network. During the questioning, it was revealed that in February 2018, he approached the CEO Apple Tima Cookand to speak to him about the well-being of adolescents and children using their services. The mere mention of this communication would seem like a normal managerial initiative under other circumstances. However, in the context of the ongoing litigation, it raises a number of questions.
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Lawsuit for the protection of minors
The lawsuit was filed by the state of New Mexico. According to the indictment, Meta has long failed to adequately protect children on platforms such as Facebook and Instagram. The state alleges that the company’s systems allowed predators to find and target underage users, connected children to inappropriate or exploitative content, and in some cases facilitated human trafficking. Attorney General Raul Torrez called the situation a “dangerous product” that facilitated the exploitation of children online and in the real world.
Experts point out that the current lawsuits are reminiscent of the trials against tobacco companies in the 90s. Even then, the issue was whether manufacturers knew about the harmfulness of their products and whether they misled the public. In the case of social networks, the debate today is whether companies sufficiently considered the impacts of their services on the mental health and safety of young people.
Email with Cookem and strained relations
During the trial, the defense raised the topic of email communications between Zuckerberg and Cookem from February 2018. Zuckerberg said he saw room for collaboration between the two companies and that he cared about the safety of young users. Details of the email were not made public. But the timing is important - the exchange took place shortly before the two companies began a public spat over user privacy. Relations between Applema and Meta have been tense for a long time, especially since the introduction of stricter rules for tracking users in the system iOS, which significantly affected Meta's advertising business.
Name Tim Cookand has also appeared earlier in this proceeding. In one of the internal messages, Zuckerberg is said to have suggested that Meta should limit research into the negative impacts of its platforms, citing the example of AppleBut such a comparison is problematic – Apple does not operate a social network and its business model is based on different principles.
Age verification controversy
One of the key points of contention is who should be responsible for verifying users' ages. Meta argues that this responsibility should be taken on by app store operators, i.e. Apple and Google. According to her, age should be checked at the system or app store level.
Apple On the contrary, it believes that the primary responsibility lies with the app developers themselves. According to the company, they are the ones who know best the nature of their content and the risks that may be associated with their service. Age verification and privacy protection should therefore be addressed for each app separately.
From a broader perspective, this is a fundamental question: should child protection be a systemic measure at the level of the entire platform, or the responsibility of a specific service? Until it is clearly defined who is responsible for what, similar disputes will be repeated.
A fundamental dispute?
The lawsuit is just one of several high-profile cases Meta is facing this year. If the court concludes that the company has indeed neglected to protect minors, it could lead not only to large fines but also to mandatory changes to the way the platforms themselves operate.
The debate has long since moved beyond privacy or the advertising-based business model. It has shifted to the very design of social networks and whether they are designed to be safe for the most vulnerable users. This is a question that the court will have to indirectly answer in the coming months.
