Executives from three social media companies have denied their platforms are inherently addictive to children and young people, in a combative appearance before MPs in Westminster.
Representatives from Meta, Roblox and TikTok faced robust questioning from the cross-party education select committee about the impact of screen time and social media on children.
A fourth executive, from Snapchat, had been due to attend Tuesday’s hearing but was said to have cancelled “at quite short notice”, drawing a sharp rebuke from the committee chair, Helen Hayes.
She warned Snapchat the committee would use its powers to summon a witness if they did not cooperate and agree to appear at a meeting next week.
A Snapchat spokesperson said later: “Due to unforeseen circumstances we were unable to attend today’s meeting. As we’ve been discussing directly with parliamentary authorities, we are fully committed and engaged in this process and look forward to a productive discussion next week.”
It’s true, they’re not. It’s how they design their feed and recommendation algorithm that makes it harmful.
Facebook and Instagram were fine, back when your feed was what you and or your friends posted. Now it’s short-form videos from influencers, misleading ads, and engagement and ragebait.
I mean, algos make it far worse and should be criminalized, but it’s not just their algos. I see tons of ragebait trending on Lemmy too, at the expense of niche communities.
My new belief is that platforms and communication forms all have a set life, and should die when they go bad (for a variety of reasons). The Big Tech platforms are just examples that have lived waaaay too long.
And while I like to think the Fediverse is aging slower, it copied existing platforms a little too closely, without trying to correct their structural issues.
I locked down my FB account about 15 yrs ago. I didn’t delete it because I’ve lived all over the place and it’s sometimes the only way to keep in touch.
But recently I reconnected with some old and dear friends so tried to add them. What a fucking mess that was, and a fucking shit-show FB has become.
The infinite scroll is a major part of it.