In the span of just 48 hours this week, two separate juries in two different US states delivered verdicts that could reshape the entire social media industry — not because of the dollar amounts involved, but because of what those verdicts legally establish for the first time. On Tuesday, March 24, a jury in Santa Fe, New Mexico ordered Meta to pay $375 million for failing to protect children from sexual exploitation on Facebook and Instagram. Less than 24 hours later, on Wednesday, March 25, a jury in Los Angeles found both Meta and Google (YouTube) liable for engineering addiction in young users — finding them negligent in the design of their platforms and awarding a further $6 million in damages. Two days. Two states. Two juries. Both pointing at the same conclusion: that Big Tech can no longer hide behind the legal shields it has relied on for nearly three decades. This is the story of what happened, why it matters far beyond the headline numbers, and what comes next for the s...
Microsoft has launched a twitter-style service in China usings its MSN live service. The new service is called Juku Which is slang for "Cool" or "Gathering". This allows users to post messages within a stipulated 140 character limit. With old messages slowely scrolling along side Users can also see automatic updates of friends messages. "MSN China, the Microsoft joint venture that developed the new product, insisted it is not a micro-blog service. "Juku is a local innovation developed by MSN China ... based on Windows Live Messenger networks," a company representative said in an e-mail." It is reported that the service also allows users to play games and win prizes such as new face icons to post in messages. Users can also upload their profile picture and browse for people they know to add as friends. Windows live messenger is popular in China and this could be a huge effort to win more people to use their instant messanger service. Micro bloggi...