• KeenFlame@feddit.nu
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    5 hours ago

    Bro my experience was horrible so horrible I am considering going to court because it was so so horrible

  • TrackenDaKracken@lemmy.world
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    16 hours ago

    a startling revelation that highlights how far these companies are willing to keep a highly sensitive subject out of the headlines.

    *… are willing TO GO to keep…

    Why are even “professional” writers dropping words this way, now?

  • Pacattack57@lemmy.world
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    21 hours ago

    We need to find a way to make settlements in exchange for silence illegal. That is not justice.

    • KeenFlame@feddit.nu
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      5 hours ago

      It does not happen in non-hypercapitalist nations. I don’t even know any other country that has a way to settle breaking laws by using money. You don’t understand how insane and sick this practice is. Hypercapitalism is not normal

    • jumping redditor [they/them]@sh.itjust.works
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      7 hours ago

      Settlements are mutually beneficial in many cases, even corps take them, nobody wants to spent years fighting a legal battle with millions in lawyer fees and nobody wants to say they were in the wrong (unless they really think they’re screwed or want the precedent).

      Even if corps had to pay out the same or more than they would for losing they would frequently choose to settle because it prevents precedent they don’t want from existing.

      • Firelord@lemmy.zip
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        6 hours ago

        Always the benefit of the doubt, always the devils advocate. All to prevent safeguards because that would be socialism or whatever. How about you hold your pedophile rulers accountable for one goddamn crime?

    • flandish@lemmy.world
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      19 hours ago

      always bugged me that the 1st amendment is only applicable to a gov’s control of a person. not a person’s “selling” their silence to a corporation. i’m saying, take the money and still speak. but that amendment won’t protect you.

      corporations need to be dissolved when they do shit like this.

      • HoopyFrood@lemmy.zip
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        17 hours ago

        If one was willing to play as dirty as the big companies it could be got away with. The threat is one would be sued into oblivion, if all of ones assets were hidden adequately that threat would be meaningless

        • frongt@lemmy.zip
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          15 hours ago

          Even with no assets, they’d still drag you into court. Even if you completely rolled over and threw yourself on the mercy of the court, they’d garnish your wages. Good luck ever getting credit from a bank again.

  • wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz
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    21 hours ago

    Hush money.

    These are the people who use “protect kids” as a slogan to excuse spying on everyone (for data they can sell to advertisers, no less).

    These are the people whom kids need to be protected from.

  • Jazzy Vidalia@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    22 hours ago

    Abolish their charters. Prosecute every person involved under RICO. Nationalize their company assets. Regulate the industry.

    It’s vulgar what the corporate world inflicts on us all and it must come to an end. These traitors against humanity need to be held accountable.

  • eicker@lemmy.worldOP
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    1 day ago

    The fact that they’re willing to pay teenagers to keep quiet says a lot. If the apps were really as safe as they claim, you’d think they’d want to prove it in court rather than settle quietly. Hard to take all those speeches about protecting kids seriously after that.

    • drakej@feddit.online
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      19 hours ago

      Read Careless People by Sarah from Meta/Facebook. She paints a picture where they are ran by people who are clearly sociopaths (obvious), but she mentions how none of them let their children use the very products they built/build. They go to Montessori schools and use nothing but wood toys from what I remember hearing.

    • SirEDCaLot@lemmy.today
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      18 hours ago

      It also shows what’s at stake for them- what they have to lose. A billion dollar company doesn’t write $2MM checks to teenagers on a whim. Someone did the math, and decided that whatever those kids had to say would cost Meta more than paying them all off.

      I think it boils down to this- Meta makes money through engagement algorithms. They keep you scrolling and scrolling for hours, and the longer you scroll the more ads you see. And the more people are scrolling, the more people there are on the platform as a target audience so the more creators are on the platform.
      But that comes at a cost. Not for Meta, but for the young impressionable people that get sucked into endless scrolling and believing that the fake lifestyles and appearance of ‘influencers’ are the way to be happy.
      Meanwhile there is no downvote button. So the worst of the toxic crap gets seen by everybody and of course people react to it and call those people out but as far as Meta is concerned that’s just more engagement on their platform.

      Point is, they have to know this is happening. They aren’t stupid. And if they know they are causing harm to kids and keep doing it anyway, then they are in big big big big big trouble. Either through court judgments or additional regulation.

      And so if they can stop that from happening by writing a few million dollar checks, that’s a bargain.

    • zergtoshi@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      You took them seriously before?
      Why?
      Their whole business revolves around exploitation and lying. And exploitation. And lying.

    • justsomeguy@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      The teen plaintiffs accused the companies of causing their depression, self-harm, eating disorders, and anxiety. According to the publication’s insider sources, Meta paid just two teens a combined $7 million to keep them quiet — a startling revelation that highlights how far these companies are willing to keep a highly sensitive subject out of the headlines.

      They go on those platforms and get pushed down rabbit holes like anorexia glorifying content and before they know it their mental health is in the kind of state that a decade of therapy can’t fix.

      The platforms pay off the very few that sue while millions of others quietly suffer. Most of them not having the resources to take them to court anyway.

    • Warl0k3@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      The teen plaintiffs accused the companies of causing their depression, self-harm, eating disorders, and anxiety.

  • TheOriginalMattman@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    These teens should offer to bring a case, breaking the NDAs in exchange for protection for doing so.

    Or just collectively break the NDAs because it would shame the social media companies into at least not pursuing them.

      • TheOriginalMattman@lemmy.world
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        8 hours ago

        If enough broke them simultaneously in a class action, with media coverage it would soften their cough.

        Bring it all out in the open. Sunlight is the best disinfectant.

        • frongt@lemmy.zip
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          21 hours ago

          Probably. These were civil suits though. You can’t settle a criminal case.

      • MIDItheKID@lemmy.world
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        21 hours ago

        If justice was real, there would be a way for them to break NDA, and keep the money, because fuck these companies. They need to be taught a lesson: “Fuck around and find out”

    • Bluegrass_Addict@lemmy.ca
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      1 day ago

      it’s not like these companies care about laws anyways, so it only stands to reason they don’t care about NDA’s either