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...
Image Crdit: Phelps Twitter Account Michael Phelps is in Shanghai for the world 2011 swimming championships this weekend. He does not appear to be the best and that distinction goes to another free spirit who goes by the name of Ryan lochte. Phelps is on Twitter and Facebook where he keeps in touch with his fans, friends and followers. He is a frequent Twitter user as can be sen from his account. Since landing in China he was under the impression that he would not be able to use these social networking sites that have been banned in China. Apparently not so and since landing he has been tweeting constantly. Chinese fans have been using roundabout methods to be able to read his tweets. He connected to Facebook and Twitter and found that he had access and just kept on tweeting, in addition to that he also has a weibo account. We have already written about weibo which is a Chinese micro-blogging site much like Twitter. It has been built along the lines of Twitter and is huhgely popular...