Social, domino effect from the conviction of Meta and Google

A chain reaction started. And above all a rush by the big tech companies to intervene to limit further sanctions. After decades of spread and domination, it is time for a crackdown on the use of social networks. From Los Angeles to Europe, it is a long wave that started in the aftermath of a sentence passed on 25 March: an American court sentenced Meta and Google to pay three million dollars in compensation (plus another three as punitive damages) to a woman whose lawyers managed to prove the link between the use of Instagram and YouTube as a child and the onset of a series of pathologies (anxiety, dysmorphism, self-harm) that compromised her mental health. The appeal is due in a year and a half. Many, on both sides of the Atlantic, see the ruling as a real turning point destined to influence the jurisprudence on the subject and even more the regulatory process underway in many countries.

The ground-breaking significance of this verdict lies in what lawyer Mark Lanier was able to prove during the hearing of the case, which was registered under the number JCCP 5255: for the first time, a causal link was established between the functioning of the algorithms and the 'infinite scroll'. It is a mechanism that generates a mental loop defined by neurologists as the 'rabbit hole effect' that makes it almost impossible to move away from the screen: an architecture that is allegedly designed by the engineering team to maximise users' dwell time and, by extension, corporate profits. And if it is still too early to intercept its effects on possible litigation in Italia, two consequences can already be glimpsed. On the one hand, the rush of technology bigwigs to intervene to limit or prevent the emergence of further sanctions, and on the other, the acceleration of legislation. In a recent speech in Copenhagen, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen spoke of "business models that treat our children's attention as a commodity", adding that the EU is taking action "against TikTok and its addictive design, endless scrolling, automatic playback and push notifications. The same applies to Meta, because we believe that Instagram and Facebook fail to enforce the minimum age limit of 13 years'.