Mark Zuckerberg's Social Reckoning

ffortran77 about 3 hours ago 40 commentsRead Article on newyorker.com

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Discussion (40 Comments)Read Original on HackerNews

enahs-sf•about 2 hours ago

https://archive.is/5Rlva

samename•about 2 hours ago

What reckoning? The settlement benefits Meta immensely. They just got the go ahead to implement age-gating at a wide scale, which will make their ad platform even more lucrative after each account can be tied back to a real identifiable person. They've totally captured the regulatory system, and the media is applauding it.

A_D_E_P_T•about 2 hours ago

It was a clear win for Meta.

> https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/aug/27/meta-s...

> That $18bn is certainly more than most companies could pay, but it pales in comparison with the $1.5tn Meta’s own PR team warned the case could cost it had it gone through the courts – and the more realistic $200bn the prosecuting lawyers sought to squeeze from the firm.

The consensus opinion was that the case would have cost them a lot more if it hadn't settled. Truly, the outcome couldn't have been more favorable to Meta. "Reckoning" -- yeah, right.

JuniperMesos•about 2 hours ago

Meta's stock price went up on the news, which I took to be a sign of the settlement costing less than investors feared it would when they previously priced meta stock. I didn't think about the regulatory capture angle.

paulpauper•about 2 hours ago

META makes so much money that this is immaterial. It's insane how profitable this company is

echelon•about 2 hours ago

This is the correct read.

Meta is pushing forward every measure it can to record precise identity, age, and income with everything that you do.

They're the ones behind the push for internet porn ID laws.

They're the ones behind the push for device attestation.

They're the ones behind the push for social media ID requirements.

They make more money, we lose freedom and privacy and sleep closer and closer to 1984.

One day the state will punish us for our ideas and associations. They already do to an extent, but it's going to get unbearable once the machinery is in place.

Democrats, Republicans, Socialists, Christians, Jews, Muslims, Atheists - everyone should oppose this.

cyanydeez•about 1 hour ago

The age gate isnt about ad revenue. Its about liability and in the grift economy, the victim is always liable.

You posit a useless POV

anukin•about 2 hours ago

This settlement benefits meta immensely. Are the journalists reading the correct judgement? The stock pretty much had a breakout when this news came out.

ceejayoz•about 2 hours ago

It's another case of people struggling with huge numbers. We just aren't prepared to tackle millions/billions/trillions very well.

wpietri•about 2 hours ago

I'm ok with generic people struggling with that. But anybody covering tech or business should be able to work effectively with the numbers at hand. Anything less is journalistic malpractice.

psunavy03•about 1 hour ago

There's arguably more journalistic malpractice going on than actual journalism.

Think back to anything you can speak to with some authority, personally or professionally. Think of the last time a reporter actually got it right. It does happen, and there are a few good journalists still out there who care about getting the facts and the issues right. But it's buried under a pile of ignorant rage-baiting slop.

_carbyau_•about 1 hour ago

We should rephrase things in % terms. IE this payout is X% of their net profit from last year.

SanjayMehta•about 1 hour ago

The journalists were most likely told to spin it this way so that meta can put on a sad face in public.

Everything is for sale and meta has the money.

paulpauper•about 2 hours ago

Meta stock is up $400 since 2016-2018, when "teen mental health" first became a concern. It's clear that META has boomed since then. Fines have amounted to little more than a cost of doing business. Stern words amount to no more than empty threats.

trhway•about 2 hours ago

Like in "Chicago" they should have prepared 2 versions of the article, yet i guess they had only one.

dmix•about 2 hours ago

The only outcome I see from the Meta ruling is all of the other platforms getting spooked by the huge payout and starting to preemptively add aggressive age-gating and ID checks on everything on the internet (regardless of local legislation).

bossyTeacher•about 2 hours ago

What other platforms (I think you mean social media) exist in the West? It's just Meta (Facebook, Instagram) and whatever company manages the western Tik Tok. Luckily, they are easy to stay away from. There is more to the internet than these 2 companies.

Arainach•about 2 hours ago

> There is more to the internet than these 2 companies.

Not as much as most people think.

A huge percentage of the physical world runs through these platforms - and if you add Twitter it gets even worse.

Plenty of groups I follow communicate exclusively through social media channels. If you want to know what events are happening there - in some cases even what hours they're open - it's through Facebook or Instagram.

For things which aren't formal businesses (photo clubs, bar popups, all sorts of things) it's even more prevalent.

Sure, if I want to sit in my house and discuss philosphy on Hacker News or IRC those exist, but it is very difficult to avoid Meta's platforms and have a social life - much less a dating life.

ChrisMarshallNY•about 1 hour ago

> There is more to the internet than these 2 companies.

To many people, the Internet is Facebook.

Back in the day, the same people considered AOL to be the Internet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDbyYGrswtg

polyomino•about 1 hour ago

Youtube is the big one called out in this settlement

rimeice•about 2 hours ago

“Other platforms” - social media sites? If so this != “everything on the internet”

pibaker•about 1 hour ago

Your definition of what is a social media site may differ from the definition of someone who has an axe to grind against you and take you and your phpbb forum to court.

dmix•about 2 hours ago

Social media encompasses most the internet usage yes (including Youtube/Google). Plus ChatGPT, Discord, Twitch, messaging apps, porn sites, Reddit, Netix, image sharing sites, etc.. basically any major B2C category

downrightmike•about 2 hours ago

Parents really need to parent

wpietri•about 1 hour ago

Society depends upon having generation after generation of healthy members. That has never been a time when individual parents were sufficient to solve all the problems there. And even that were possible, directing all the attention on them acts to absolve Meta of all responsibility for their own actions.

If we're going to promote a policy of personal responsibility, let's at least look at all the persons involved.

mschuster91•about 2 hours ago

How? Between 11 hours of work+commute, 8 hours of sleep and 2 hours of work-adjacent activities such as making food or household chores... there isn't that much time left in a day.

That's also the reason why so many people don't have children any more, or only later in their life when they are economically settled.

winrid•about 2 hours ago

People worked that hard when families often had 3 or more kids. The difference is one parent could afford to not work. We've let corporations "optimize" that away.

dmix•about 2 hours ago

Phones have had parental controls already built in forever. My sister is a busy executive who commutes daily and she didn't let her kid have a phone until age 13, and when they bought an Android phone they signed up for one of the (many) existing parental monitoring apps. Which for ex will notify the parent when their child gets messaged from a new person not in their existing curated contact list. So their phone is only used contacting their close friends at school. Parental monitoring and controlling usage on sites like Youtube and Facebook is a long solved problem, if the parent put any basic effort in.

trhway•about 2 hours ago

I think the reason may be generational. The current parents are majority Millenials, the generation which didn't have to shoulder a lot of personal responsibility like previous generations. Thus when it comes to their children they as usually place the responsibility on anybody but themselves.

Both parents working actually i think is a net-good thing - it teaches children to be responsible from early age. As my parents were both working - USSR - even when i was 5 years old i was already watching my 1 year old sister. And we were pretty typical at that.

ares623•about 2 hours ago

won't someone think of the corporations and CEOs

jazzpush2•about 1 hour ago

There is still yet no reckoning for Zuckerberg nor the people who choose to work for Meta.

What would justice look like for someone responsible for building something so detrimental to society? What of the employees?

baron3dl•about 1 hour ago

Maximilien Robespierre.

lee_ward•about 1 hour ago

My feed's been an absolute dumpster fire since 2016. Reckoning feels long overdue for the platform's architects.

amazingamazing•about 1 hour ago

Why settle. No confidence?