Meta · Instagram · California · Facebook · Fortune Technology
Instagram is like a digital cigarette and box of chocolates that ‘encourages gluttony.’ How do you fix
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Meta’s child-safety reckoning has drawn plenty of comparisons to Big Tobacco, but cigarettes were never designed to learn what each smoker wanted next.
Key facts
- Magid currently serves on Meta’s Safety Advisory Council and Youth Advisory Council, as well as a safety advisory group for Meta Reality Labs
- Now Big Social Media is facing its Big Tobacco moment in court as four states—California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey—try to prove that Meta designed Instagram and Facebook to keep young users
- Magid has worked with Meta on safety issues since 2005, when Facebook had only recently expanded beyond college campuses to high school students
- Meta has told Fortune that less than 1% of its revenue comes from teens on Instagram
Summary
Its recommendation algorithms learn what keeps users watching, infinite scroll eliminates the natural stopping point and autoplay serves up the next video without waiting to be asked. Now Big Social Media is facing its Big Tobacco moment in court as four states—California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey—try to prove that Meta designed Instagram and Facebook to keep young users hooked. Larry Magid, a longtime online-safety advocate who has advised Meta on safety issues, thinks the cigarette comparison only goes so far. Young people can use it to maintain friendships, find communities, organize around causes and access information. “The algorithms change the whole nature of it, and that’s where my chocolate metaphor went awry,” Magid told Fortune.