Meta allegedly stalled internal efforts to address child predators, hid evidence, Elon Musk calls revelations ‘terrible’

Billionaire technocrat Elon Musk has weighed in on the Meta Platforms controversy after allegations emerged that Mark Zuckerberg’s company had halted internal efforts to stop child predators from communicating with minors on the platform and concealed evidence of harm from social media.

Responding to a Times post on his social media platform

The report also noted that court filings showed Meta’s products increased mental health problems in young people, and that content related to eating disorders, suicide and child sexual abuse were frequently detected but rarely acted upon.

What US court filings show: Highlights

According to Reuters reports, the filings state that Meta claims:

• It deliberately designed its youth safety features to be ineffective and rarely used them for fear of hindering the platforms’ growth.
• The papers also alleged that Meta required users to be caught “trafficking people for sex” at least 17 times before their accounts on the platforms were blocked or removed. Reuters added that the documents call this a “very, very high attack threshold.”
• Moreover, he claimed that Meta was aware that tweaking algorithms to increase youth engagement led to them being exposed to more harmful content, but continued to do so anyway.
• Filings also accused Meta of stalling internal efforts “for years” even though such steps could prevent predators from coming into contact with children. He also reportedly pressured staff to disseminate arguments supporting his decision as the best course of action.
• The documents also showed Mark Zuckerberg saying in a 2021 text message that child safety wasn’t his biggest concern compared to “some of the other areas I’m more focused on building, like Metaverse.”
• It also showed Mark Zuckerberg rejecting or ignoring requests from then-head of global public policy Nick Clegg for better funding of child safety work.

Allegations against Meta: Was evidence of damage concealed?

The Reuters report noted that Meta scientists and Nielsen, in a 2020 research project codenamed “Project Mercury,” sought to find out how users coped with “opting out” of Facebook, and found that “people who stopped using Facebook for a week reported lower feelings of depression, anxiety, loneliness, and social comparison,” internal documents state.

He added that instead of publishing these findings or conducting further research, Meta canceled the project and declared internally that the study was “tainted by the current media narrative.” But employees told Clegg the results were valid.

“Nielsen research shows a causal effect on social comparison” (unhappy face emoji), an unnamed staff researcher allegedly said. Another staff member worried that remaining silent about negative findings would be akin to the tobacco industry “doing research and knowing that smoking is bad and then keeping that information to itself.”

In the filings, Meta later told the US Congress that it was unable to measure whether its platforms were harmful to young people, despite the study showing a causal link between its products and negative mental health effects.

How did Meta react to these allegations?

Meta spokesman Andy Stone said on Saturday that the study was halted because the methodology was flawed and that it was working diligently to improve the safety of its products. “The full record will show that for more than a decade we have been listening to parents, investigating the issues that matter most and making real changes to protect young people,” he said.

The allegations were raised in a class-action lawsuit by law firm Motley Rice, which is suing Meta, Google, TikTok and Snapchat on behalf of school districts across the country. TikTok, Google and Snapchat did not immediately respond to a request for comment, Reuters reported.

Stone disputed the allegations and claimed that the company’s youth safety measures were effective and that its current policy was to immediately remove accounts flagged for sex trafficking. “We strongly disagree with these claims, which are based on cherry-picked quotes and misinformed opinions,” he said.

It is noteworthy that the documents on which the case is based were not disclosed to the public and Meta filed a lawsuit for the annulment of the documents. The hearing on the application will be held on January 26 in the Northern California District Court.

(With inputs from Reuters)