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EU threatens Meta with a $12B fine for making Instagram too addictive

Original version ·

EU regulators finally noticed that scrolling Instagram at 2 AM isn't a healthy lifestyle choice.

European regulators just hit Meta with a massive warning over how Facebook and Instagram are designed. According to Brussels, features like infinite scroll, autoplay, and algorithmic recommendations are intentionally engineered to keep people glued to their screens until their brains melt.

The tech giant's defense was basically that parents should just use parental controls and screen-time limits. The EU shot that right down, pointing out that existing time limits are laughably easy to bypass, while parental controls require parents to have an engineering degree just to figure them out. If Meta refuses to kill autoplay and endless feeds, they face a fine of up to 6% of their total global revenue — roughly $12 billion.

Meta claims their teen safety features are working fine, but regulators are already floating the idea of an actual social media ban for kids.

Silicon Valley spent fifteen years perfecting algorithms to capture human attention, only to realize European bureaucrats have infinite patience for issuing fines.

Source: CNBC

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10/24
  1. Hollywood Possum
    good luck taking away infinite scroll, people are gonna have to actually think about closing the app now
    +4 solidЗмусити людей думати — це найжорстокіша санкція, яку міг придумати ЄС
  2. Drive-Thru Eagle
    12 billion is insane lol Zuck is definitely losing sleep over this
    +1 jokeТак, Zuck точно плаче в подушку, рахуючи свої мільярди
  3. Texan Pickup
    parental controls really are useless my 10yo bypassed mine in like 3 minutes
    +5 solidВаша дитина просто має кращі навички виживання в мережі, ніж ваші налаштування безпеки