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Instagram (Meta)

The United States v Meta Platforms Court Filing October 24, 2023 is part of . You can jump to any part in this filing . This is part 34 of 100. HackerNoon’s Legal PDF Series here c. Meta’s design of the Instagram registration process allows children under 13 to use Instagram. 767. As set forth in detail above, Instagram first utilized no age gate for several years, then implemented an age gate that defaulted to a user age of 13 or above, then implemented an age gate that depends on children to self-report their own age. Meta is aware that because of these intentional design choices, under-13 users routinely supply a false date of birth when registering for Instagram. 768. Meta has access to, and chooses not to use, alternative feasible age verification methods that would significantly reduce or eliminate the number of underage users on Meta’s Social Media Platforms, for example, by requiring young users to submit student IDs upon registration. 769. Instagram’s decision not to use effective age verification that would exclude under-13 users is one way that it effectively targets and welcomes under-13 users onto the Platform. 770. Because Meta does not effectively exclude users under the age of 13 from Instagram, Meta’s external narrative regarding its COPPA compliance and age verification is misleading, including inaccurate public statements by Zuckerberg himself. [Redacted] Continue Reading . Here About HackerNoon Legal PDF Series: We bring you the most important technical and insightful public domain court case filings. This court case 4:23-cv-05448 retrieved on October 25, 2023, from is part of the public domain. The court-created documents are works of the federal government, and under copyright law, are automatically placed in the public domain and may be shared without legal restriction. Washingtonpost.com Lead image by Sara Kurfeß on Unsplash

Instagram Does Little To Prevent Under-13 Users From Registering on the Platform

The United States v Meta Platforms Court Filing October 24, 2023 is part of . You can jump to any part in this filing . This is part 30 of 100. HackerNoon’s Legal PDF Series here B. Meta does not comply with COPPA with respect to Instagram. 1. Meta possesses actual knowledge of children on Instagram and collects their personal information without obtaining parental consent. 642. Meta is subject to COPPA’s verifiable parental consent requirement, among other reasons because it collects the personal information of users under the age of 13 on Instagram despite having “actual knowledge that it is collecting personal information from [children].” 15 U.S.C. § 6502(a)(1). 643. Publicly, for example in congressional testimony provided by Meta executive Antigone Davis on September 30, 2021, Meta has downplayed its actual knowledge of under-13 users on Instagram by pointing out that its terms of service nominally disallow use of Instagram by under-13 users—and that, in recent years, Meta has prompted users to self-report that they are at least 13 years old. 644. Despite Meta’s efforts to avoid its responsibilities under COPPA by attempting to maintain willful ignorance of its users under the age of 13, Meta routinely obtains actual knowledge of under-13 users on Instagram. 645-647. [Redacted] a. [Redacted] 648. Despite its public-facing claims that users under the age of 13 are not allowed on Instagram, including in congressional testimony provided by Meta executive Davis in September 2021, [Redacted] 649-655. [Redacted] 656. Despite possessing actual knowledge of Instagram users under the age of 13 [Redacted], Meta refuses to obtain verifiable parental consent as required by COPPA for users under the age of 13. 657-659. [Redacted] 660. [Redacted] Meta did not obtain verifiable parental consent for its ongoing collection of personal information from those users. 661-663. [Redacted] 664. Externally, Meta denies that it strives to attract underage users to its Platforms. For example, in September 2021, in response to a Wall Street Journal article regarding underage users on Instagram, Meta provided a written statement claiming that “[l]ike all technology companies, of course we want to appeal to the next generation, but that’s entirely different from the false assertion that we knowingly attempt to recruit people who aren’t old enough to use our apps.” 665-666. [Redacted] 667. [Redacted] for their children under the age of 13 does not satisfy Meta’s obligation to obtain verifiable parental consent under COPPA for the collection and use of the child’s personal information. [Redacted] does not provide parents with the notices required by COPPA, including notices of what personal information Meta is collecting from their children, nor does it satisfy COPPA’s requirement to ensure that the person providing consent is actually the parent of the child. 668. [Redacted] 669. In this instance and many others, Meta did not meaningfully enforce its nominal age restriction on Instagram, despite its external claims to the contrary, including in Davis’s September 30, 2021 congressional testimony, in which she stated that “we will remove [underage accounts].” 670-677. [Redacted] 678. Meta collects information that identifies accounts on its various Social Media Platforms that belong to the same individual user. For example, Meta collects email addresses from users when they set up new Facebook and Instagram accounts. Meta instructs its Instagram and Facebook users to provide an email address “that only you can access.” In or around September 2020, Meta released a feature called “Accounts Center,” which allows users to link their accounts on Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger using a single sign on. 679-681. [Redacted] 682. [Redacted] Externally, however, Meta claimed in a July 27, 2021 post, titled “How Do We Know Someone Is Old Enough to Use Our Apps?,” that it used a users’ age stated to either Platform to gate users’ access to both Platforms. 682-684. [Redacted] 685. Meta deceives the public regarding its policies when underage accounts are reported. If someone reports that an account belongs to an individual under the age of 13, Meta claims on its Instagram Help Center that “we will delete the account if we can’t verify the account is managed by someone over 13 years old.” [Redacted] Zuckerberg told Congress on March 25, 2021, “if we detect that someone might be under the age of 13, even if they lied, we kick them off.” 686-695. [Redacted] 696. [Redacted]; this research, provided by an organization called Thorn, revealed that of children ages 9-12, 45% used Facebook and 40% used Instagram daily. 697. [Redacted] In this way, Meta goes through great lengths to avoid meaningfully complying with COPPA, looking for loopholes to excuse its knowledge of users under the age of 13 and maintain their presence on the Platform. 698. [Redacted] e. Meta knows that Instagram’s lack of effective age-gating elicits false self-reports of children’s ages 699. For most of its history, up until December 2019, Instagram did not require new users to disclose their age or date of birth in order to create an Instagram account. During that time, Meta did not require users to take even the minimal step of self-attesting that they were over the age of 13. Instead, for over seven years, under-13 users faced no practical obstacles to creating accounts on Instagram. 700-701. [Redacted] 702. Eventually, in response to pressure from regulators and the public, Meta purported to implement an age gate as part Instagram’s account registration process—but the term “gate” was a misnomer because it did not prevent under-13 users from creating and using Instagram accounts. 703. To the contrary, Meta initially designed its age gate in a way that prompted all users, including children under the age of 13, to provide an age over 13. Specifically, Meta’s sign-up page contained a drop-down menu that automatically generated a date and year of birth representing the user to be 13 years old. The design of the age gate signaled to children the specific date that they could affirm to advance through the registration process, even though the date automatically populated by Instagram was not their actual date of birth. 704. Meta knew that its use of a sign-up page automatically generating a date 13 years prior to the date of registration aided under-13 users in misrepresenting their age in order to access Instagram. 705. “[E]ncourag[ing] children to falsify their ages to gain access” is impermissible under COPPA. See COPPA July 2020 Guidance § H(3).[35] 706. Meta only recently changed Instagram’s sign-up page to automatically generate the instant date and year, rather than a date 13 years prior. 707. Meta’s adoption of an age gate that permits the user to enter any date of birth, regardless of its accuracy, still does not prevent under-13 users from using Instagram. 708. [Redacted] 709. In sum, Meta’s age gate efforts for Instagram have long been ineffective: first, Instagram utilized no age gate for several years, then implemented an age gate that defaulted to an entry of ages over 13, and now uses an age gate that still depends on an under-13 user to correctly self-report their own age, without any verification. 710. [Redacted] 711. [Redacted] Nonetheless, Meta externally touts its age-gating as an effective means to keep children under the age of 13 off Instagram and Facebook. 712. While testifying before Congress on September 30, 2021, Meta executive Davis stated: “if we see someone trying to, repeatedly, change the [birth] date to get past that [age screen], we actually will restrict their ability to access the app.” [Redacted] 713-722. [Redacted] 723. [Redacted] While Meta externally claimed that it built under-13 products for kids and tweens in a September 27, 2021 post on Instagram’s website entitled “Pausing ‘Instagram Kids’ and Building Parental Supervision Tools,” [Redacted] 724. [Redacted] 725. Meta has access to, and chooses not to use, feasible alternative age verification methods that would significantly reduce or eliminate the number of underage users on Meta’s Social Media Platforms, for example, by requiring young users to submit student IDs upon registration. 726-728. [Redacted] 729. Externally, Meta misleads the public by claiming, in a March 17, 2021 post on Instagram’s website, that “we know that young people can lie about their date of birth. We want to do more to stop this from happening,” [Redacted] 730. Rather than excluding under-13 users from Instagram, Meta could alternatively comply with COPPA by obtaining informed parental consent after providing notice to parents of its intent to collect and use children’s personal information. Meta chooses not to do so. 731. Despite knowing that its lack of age gates and later implementation of minimal age gate designs have allowed users under age 13 onto Instagram, Meta does not obtain verifiable parental consent before collecting the personal information of those users who routinely register for, and provide their personal information to, Instagram. f. [Redacted] 732-736. [Redacted] 737. Meanwhile, Meta publicly maintains that it does not allow under-13 users on its Platforms, relying primarily on its faulty age-collection at sign-up [Redacted] 738-742. [Redacted] 743. Meta externally claimed, through congressional testimony provided by Mosseri on December 8, 2021, that “we train our technology to identify if people are above or below 18 using multiple signals,”—including birthday posts—and that Meta is building new technology to do the same for users under 13. [Redacted] 744. Former Meta Director of Site Integrity and former consultant to Meta Bejar testified that Meta does not meaningfully utilize birthday posts to identify users who claim to be over 13 years old but are not. In fact, Meta’s internal reporting mechanism for using birthday posts is complicated which prevents most reports from reaching “completion,” or the point where a person successfully submits a report to Instagram. 745. Despite Meta’s actual knowledge, acquired through its possession and review of estimated age data and/or acquired through other sources, that Meta collects personal information of users under the age of 13 in the ordinary course of its operations, Meta does not obtain verifiable parental consent for under-13 users. [35] Complying with COPPA: Frequently Asked Questions, Fed. Trade Comm’n (July 2020), https://archive.ph/PEj8q (hereinafter “July 2020 COPPA Guidance”). Continue Reading . Here About HackerNoon Legal PDF Series: We bring you the most important technical and insightful public domain court case filings. This court case 4:23-cv-05448 retrieved on October 25, 2023, from is part of the public domain. The court-created documents are works of the federal government, and under copyright law, are automatically placed in the public domain and may be shared without legal restriction. Washingtonpost.com

Meta Monetizes the Personal Information of Minors on Instagram

The United States v Meta Platforms Court Filing October 24, 2023 is part of . You can jump to any part in this filing . This is part 19 of 100. HackerNoon’s Legal PDF Series here 5. Meta’s use of social comparison features such as “Likes” also promotes compulsive use and mental health harms for young users. 226. Meta’s Social Media Platforms contain additional design features that exacerbate social comparison, such as the quantification and display of Like counts on each piece of content on Instagram and Facebook. 227. Likes are a quick way for users to express validation or approval of other users’ photos or videos, by clicking or tapping a heart icon or the iconic thumbs-up icon. Likes were developed by Meta between 2010 and 2013. 228. [Redacted] Despite that knowledge, Meta has elected to publicly downplay its negative effects on young users rather than eliminating the feature for young users or truthfully disclosing its negative effects. 229-250. [Redacted] 251. As of October 2023, Like counts on all users’ posts remain visible by default on Instagram and Facebook. 252. Rather than removing visible Like counts for all users by default [Redacted], users who wish to hide Like counts from posts in their Instagram or Facebook Feeds must navigate submenus of preferences to affirmatively opt in. 253. Meta could have, at a minimum, hidden Like counts for young users of Instagram and Facebook, but it declined to do so. Instead, Meta continues to show young users Like counts for all content in its Social Media Platforms by default. 254. [Redacted] 255. [Redacted] Meta continues to quantify and display social statistics such as Likes on its Platforms by default. 256-260. [Redacted] 261. [Redacted] Meta chose to continue displaying Like counts and to continue prioritizing the display of “popular” posts. 262-264. [Redacted] 265. [Redacted] Indeed, in the context of discussing whether Like counts should remain visible at WIRED’s annual conference on November 8, 2019, Mosseri publicly stated that “[w]e will make decisions that hurt the business if they’re good for people’s well-being and health . . . .” 266-272. [Redacted] 273. [Redacted] Meta declined to implement Project Daisy as a default for young users, only making it available to young users as an opt-in setting. 274-283. [Redacted] 284. A May 26, 2021 Meta blog post, titled “Giving People More Control on Instagram and Facebook,” claimed that although the company tested Daisy “to see if it might depressurize people’s experience on Instagram,” Meta had decided not to implement it as a default because “not seeing like counts was beneficial for some, and annoying to others.” 285-287. [Redacted] 288. Through these and other public statements, Meta falsely represented that Project Daisy was not implemented by default in Instagram and Facebook because Meta lacked evidence that the Platform changes tested in Project Daisy were beneficial to the mental health and wellbeing of its users—or because the impact of removing visible Like counts was too “individualized” to be beneficial as a default setting applicable to a general audience. 289-298. [Redacted] Continue Reading . Here About HackerNoon Legal PDF Series: We bring you the most important technical and insightful public domain court case filings. This court case 4:23-cv-05448 retrieved on October 25, 2023, from is part of the public domain. The court-created documents are works of the federal government, and under copyright law, are automatically placed in the public domain and may be shared without legal restriction. Washingtonpost.com Lead image by karsten winegeart on unsplash

Facebook and Instagram's Utilization of Dopamine-Driven Features to Foster User Engagement

The United States v. Meta Platforms Court Filing October 24, 2023 is part of . You can jump to any part in this filing . This is part 8 of 100. HackerNoon’s Legal PDF Series here VI. DEFENDANTS 22. The Defendants in this action include Meta Platforms, Inc. (Meta Platforms), Instagram, LLC (Instagram), Meta Payments, Inc. (Meta Payments), and Meta Platforms Technologies, LLC (Meta Technologies) (collectively, Meta). 23. Defendant Meta Platforms is a Delaware corporation with its principal place of business in Menlo Park, California. As relevant here, Meta Platforms, through itself or its subsidiaries, develops, markets, and operates Social Media Platforms and other internet-based Platforms and products including Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp. Meta also develops, markets, and operates the VR Social Media Platform Horizon Worlds. 24. Meta Platforms transacts or has transacted business in this District, the Filing States, and throughout the United States. At all times material to this Complaint, acting alone or in concert with its subsidiaries (identified below), Meta Platforms has advertised, marketed, and distributed its Social Media Platforms to consumers throughout the United States. 25. Meta Platforms was formerly known as Facebook, Inc. until it changed its corporate name in October 2021. In 2004, Mark Zuckerberg founded the Social Media Platform The Facebook, while a student at Harvard University. At that time, Myspace was popular, along with websites like Friendster and Flickr. The Facebook spread among colleges via word of mouth and exclusive invitations and became more popular among young adults. Zuckerberg dropped out of Harvard to develop the Platform into a company, and it became known as Facebook. 26. Facebook’s popularity not only grew—it changed the entire landscape of the internet. In 2004, only 5% of U.S. adults used any social media platform. As of 2021, 69% of U.S. adults used Facebook alone. 27. Following the success of Facebook, Meta Platforms expanded through a series of acquisitions. On April 9, 2012, Meta Platforms purchased Instagram reportedly for $1 billion. Meta Platforms acquired Instagram in part because it believed that if Instagram grew to a large scale, it could be very disruptive to Facebook. 28. More importantly, Instagram was most popular among young users—a market where Meta was seeking to expand as Facebook’s primary audience aged and the Platform lost its “cool” factor. 29. By the end of 2016, Instagram grew to over 600 million users. By 2018, Instagram had revenues surpassing $10 billion, and it has been estimated to be valued at over $100 billion. An estimated 62% of teens in the United States regularly use Instagram. 30. Meta Platforms has also expanded into virtual reality gaming, hardware, and software, since acquiring the virtual reality headset creator Oculus in 2014. 31. In October 2021, Facebook rebranded the company to “Meta,” a move meant to encapsulate that its subsidiaries and products went beyond the Facebook Platform and to emphasize its work on the so-called “metaverse.” 32. As a result of acquisitions such as Instagram and Oculus, Meta Platforms has continued to dominate the market of Social Media Platforms and apps, becoming the largest social media company in the world. As of October 2023, Meta Platforms’ market capitalization— the value of the company—exceeded $800 billion. 33. At all times material to this Complaint, Meta Platforms formulated, directed, controlled, had the authority to control, or participated in the acts and practices set forth in this Complaint. 34. Defendant Meta Platforms currently operates its business primarily through its subsidiaries. Meta Platforms’ key subsidiaries include Instagram, Meta Payments, and Meta Platforms Technologies. 35. Defendant Instagram offers a mobile application that enables users to share content such as photographs and videos online and over social networks. Instagram is a limited liability company formed in Delaware, and shares its principal place of business in Menlo Park, California, with Meta Platforms. Defendant Meta Platforms is the sole member or manager of Instagram. 36. Defendant Meta Payments is incorporated in the State of Florida and shares its principal place of business in Menlo Park, California, with Meta Platforms. Meta Payments processes payments made through Meta’s Social Media Platforms. Meta Platforms directly owns Meta Payments, its subsidiary. 37. Defendant Meta Technologies is a Delaware limited liability company and shares its principal place of business in Menlo Park, California, with Meta Platforms. Previously known as Facebook Technologies, LLC, Meta Technologies has absorbed Meta’s Oculus business segment, which it acquired in 2014. Meta Technologies develops Meta’s virtual reality technology. Defendant Meta Platforms is the sole member or manager of Meta Technologies. 38. As detailed in the allegations below, Meta Platforms, itself and through its Defendant subsidiaries over which it exercises authority and control (collectively, Meta), has engaged in, and continues to engage in, unfair, deceptive, and unlawful activity in the Filing States and in this District. 39. Meta operates as a common enterprise. All Defendants have their principal place of business at Meta Platforms’ corporate headquarters in Menlo Park, California. As discussed below, senior executives at Meta Platforms, including Zuckerberg—Meta Platforms’ CEO, board chair, and controlling shareholder—exercise control over important policy and staffing decisions relating to its Social Media Platforms. 40. Meta also represents itself as a common enterprise. Meta’s financial disclosures describe Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp, as Meta’s “‘family’ of products,” and report revenue and expenses for the entire “family” together. Instagram’s Terms of Use agreement currently identifies “The Instagram Service” as “one of the Meta Products, provided to you by Meta Platforms, Inc.” Meta’s supplemental terms of service for its “Meta Platforms Technologies Products” is similarly styled as an agreement between Meta Platforms and the user. “Meta Platforms Technologies Products” are defined to include its VR-related products, such as its Meta Quest and Oculus virtual reality headsets, and Meta Horizon Worlds, its virtual reality Social Media Platform. Meta Platforms also reports its revenue from its VR business segment in its financial disclosures. 41. Meta’s corporate website represents the leaders of its subsidiaries as Meta’s “executives” alongside Zuckerberg and other Meta Platforms executives. For example, Adam Mosseri is identified as “Head of Instagram” and is described as having “been at Meta” for more than 11 years. Stephane Kasriel, the CEO of Meta Payments, is identified on Meta’s website as “the head of Commerce and Financial Technologies at Meta” who “oversees all commerce and fintech work across Meta’s technologies and platforms.” 42. [Redacted] 43. In addition to sharing a headquarters, [Redacted] 44. Because Meta operates as a common enterprise, each Defendant is jointly and severally liable for the acts and practices alleged below. Continue Reading . Here About HackerNoon Legal PDF Series: We bring you the most important technical and insightful public domain court case filings. This court case 4:23-cv-05448 retrieved on October 25, 2023, from is part of the public domain. The court-created documents are works of the federal government, and under copyright law, are automatically placed in the public domain and may be shared without legal restriction. Washingtonpost.com

Multi-State Coalition Accuses Meta of Harming Youth on Social Media

The United States v. Meta Platforms Court Filing October 24, 2023 is part of . You can jump to any part in this filing here. This is the table of links with all parts. HackerNoon’s Legal PDF Series : 4:23-cv-05448 Case Number Plaintiffs: State Of Arizona, The People Of The State Of California; State Of Colorado,; State Of Connecticut; State Of Delaware; State Of Georgia, Attorney General Of The State Of Georgia; State Of Hawai‘i, Ex Rel. Anne E. Lopez, Attorney General; State Of Idaho, Through Attorney General Raúl R. Labrador; The People Of The State Of Illinois; State Of Indiana; State Of Kansas, Ex Rel. Kris W. Kobach, Attorney General; The Commonwealth Of Kentucky; State Of Louisiana; State Of Maine; Office Of The Attorney General Of Maryland; State Of Michigan Ex Rel. Dana Nessel, Attorney General; State Of Minnesota, By Its Attorney General, Keith Ellison; State Of Missouri, Ex Rel. Andrew Bailey, Attorney General; State Of Nebraska Ex Rel. Michael T. Hilgers, Attorney General; Matthew J. Platkin, Attorney General For The State Of New Jersey, And Cari Fais, Acting Director Of The New Jersey Division Of Consumer Affairs; The People Of The State Of New York, By Letitia James, Attorney General Of The State Of New York; State Of North Carolina, Ex Rel. Joshua H. Stein, Attorney General; State Of North Dakota, Ex Rel. Drew Wrigley, Attorney General; State Of Ohio, Ex Rel. Attorney General Dave Yost; State Of Oregon Ex Rel. Ellen F. Rosenblum, Attorney General For The State Of Oregon; Commonwealth Of Pennsylvania By Attorney General Michelle A. Henry; State Of Rhode Island; State Of South Carolina, Ex. Rel. Alan M. Wilson, In His Official Capacity As Attorney General Of The State Of South Carolina; State Of South Dakota Ex Rel. Marty J. Jackley, South Dakota Attorney General; Commonwealth Of Virginia, Ex Rel. Jason S. Miyares, Attorney General; State Of Washington, Ex Rel. Robert W. Ferguson, Attorney General; State Of West Virginia, Ex Rel. Patrick Morrisey, Attorney General; And State Of Wisconsin, : Meta Platforms Defendant : October 24, 2023 Filing Date : Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers Judge : In the United States District Court for the Northern District of California Location TABLE OF CONTENTS I. SUMMARY OF THE CASE II. PUBLIC INTEREST III. JURISDICTION, VENUE AND DIVISIONAL ASSIGNMENT A. Jurisdiction B. Venue C. Divisional Assignment. IV. RELEVANT TIMES V. PLAINTIFFS VI. DEFENDANTS VII. TRADE AND COMMERCE IN THE FILING STATES VIII. META’S SCHEME TO EXPLOIT YOUNG USERS FOR PROFIT A. To maximize profit, Meta’s business model focuses on increasing young users’ engagement. 1. Meta monetizes young users’ attention through data harvesting and targeted advertising. 2. Meta specifically targets young users. 3. Meta designs and deploys features to capture young users’ attention and prolong their time on its Social Media Platforms. B. Meta falsely represents that its Social Media Platform features are safe and not designed to induce young users’ compulsive and extended use. Meta represents to the public that its Social Media Platforms are designed to support young users’ well-being. Meta prioritizes maximizing engagement over young users’ safety. Meta’s Recommendation Algorithms encourage compulsive use, which Meta does not disclose. The Recommendation Algorithms are harmful to young users’ mental health, notwithstanding Meta’s representations to the contrary. Meta’s use of social comparison features such as “Likes” also promotes compulsive use and mental health harms for young users. Meta’s use of disruptive audiovisual and haptic notifications interferes with young users’ education and sleep. Meta promotes Platform features such as visual filters known to promote eating disorders and body dysmorphia in youth Meta offers features that it claims promote connection between friends, but actually serve to increase young users’ time spent on the Platform. Through its Platform features, Meta discourages young users’ attempts to disengage, notwithstanding Meta’s representations to the contrary Meta knows its Platform features are addictive and harmful, but misrepresents and omits this information in public discourse. Meta makes its Platforms and associated harmful features available to especially young and vulnerable users. C. Meta has misled its users and the public by boasting a low prevalence of harmful content on its Social Media Platforms (Redacted) D. Meta’s Platform features cause young users significant physical and mental harm, of which Meta is keenly aware. IX. META’S COPPA NONCOMPLIANCE A. COPPA requires Meta to obtain verifiable parental consent for Instagram and Facebook users under the age of 13 B. Meta does not comply with COPPA with respect to Instagram. Meta possesses actual knowledge of children on Instagram and collects their personal information without obtaining parental consent. Instagram is “directed to children.” a. Instagram’s audience composition includes millions of users under the age of 13 b. Advertising that promotes Instagram and appears on Instagram is directed to children c. Meta’s design of the Instagram registration process allows children under 13 to use Instagram. d. Users under age 13 are an “intended audience” of Instagram. e. Subject matter, characters, activities, music, and other content on Instagram are child-oriented. f. Models and celebrities on Instagram are children and/or child-oriented. Meta does not obtain verifiable parental consent before collecting personal information from users under the age of 13 on Instagram. C. Meta does not comply with COPPA with respect to Facebook. Meta has actual knowledge of users under age 13 on Facebook. Facebook is “directed to children.” Meta does not obtain verifiable parental consent before collecting personal information from users under age 13 on Facebook. X. META CONTINUES TO EXPAND AND INTRODUCE NEW PLATFORMS XI. SUMMARY OF META’S DECEPTIVE AND UNFAIR OR UNCONSCIONABLE ACTS AND PRACTICES A. Deceptive Acts and Practices B. Unfair and/or Unconscionable Acts and Practices CLAIMS FOR RELIEF COUNT I: COPPA VIOLATIONS BY META COUNT II: VIOLATIONS OF THE ARIZONA CONSUMER FRAUD ACT, ARIZ. REV. STAT. §§ 44-1521 to -1534 COUNT III: FALSE OR MISLEADING STATEMENTS BY META IN VIOLATION OF BUSINESS AND PROFESSIONS CODE SECTION 17500 (BY THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA) COUNT IV: UNFAIR COMPETITION BY META IN VIOLATION OF BUSINESS AND PROFESSIONS CODE SECTION 17200 (BY THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA) COUNT V: DECEPTIVE ACTS OR PRACTICES BY META IN VIOLATION OF THE COLORADO CONSUMER PROTECTION ACT, COLO. REV. STAT. § 6-1-105(1)(e) COUNT VI: DECEPTIVE ACTS OR PRACTICES BY META IN VIOLATION OF THE COLORADO CONSUMER PROTECTION ACT, COLO. REV. STAT. § 6-1-105(1)(g) COUNT VII: DECEPTIVE ACTS OR PRACTICES BY META IN VIOLATION OF THE COLORADO CONSUMER PROTECTION ACT, COLO. REV. STAT. § 6-1-105(1)(u) COUNT VIII: DECEPTIVE AND UNFAIR ACTS OR PRACTICES BY META IN VIOLATION OF THE COLORADO CONSUMER PROTECTION ACT, COLO. REV. STAT. § 6-1-105(1)(rrr) COUNT IX: VIOLATIONS OF THE CONNECTICUT UNFAIR TRADE PRACTICES ACT, CONNECTICUT GENERAL STATUTES § 42-110b et seq. COUNT X: VIOLATIONS OF THE DELAWARE CONSUMER FRAUD ACT (Delaware CFA), 6 Del. Code Ann. § 2513 et seq COUNT XI: VIOLATIONS OF THE DELAWARE DECEPTIVE TRADE PRACTICES ACT (Delaware DTPA), 6 Del. Code Ann. § 2531 et seq. COUNT XII: DECEPTIVE ACTS OR PRACTICES BY META IN VIOLATION OF GEORGIA FAIR BUSINESS PRACTICES ACT, O.C.G.A. § 10-1-390 et seq COUNT XIII: UNFAIR ACTS OR PRACTICES BY META IN VIOLATION OF GEORGIA FAIR BUSINESS PRACTICES ACT, O.C.G.A. § 10-1-390 et seq. COUNT XIV: UNFAIR OR DECEPTIVE ACTS OR PRACTICES BY META IN VIOLATION OF THE HAWAI‘I UNFAIR AND DECEPTIVE ACTS OR TRADE PRACTICES ACT, HAW. REV. STAT. CHAPTER 480 COUNT XV: DECEPTIVE ACTS OR PRACTICES BY META IN VIOLATION OF THE ILLINOIS CONSUMER FRAUD AND DECEPTIVE BUSINESS PRACTICES ACT, 815 ILCS 505/1 et seq. COUNT XVI: UNFAIR ACTS OR PRACTICES BY META IN VIOLATION OF THE ILLINOIS CONSUMER FRAUD AND DECEPTIVE BUSINESS PRACTICES ACT, 815 ILCS 505/1 et seq. COUNT XVII: CONDUCT VIOLATIVE OF THE ILLINOIS UNIFORM DECEPTIVE TRADE PRACTICES ACT BY META, IN VIOLATION OF THE ILLINOIS CONSUMER FRAUD AND DECEPTIVE BUSINESS PRACTICES ACT, 815 ILCS 505/1 et seq. COUNT XVIII: UNFAIR OR DECEPTIVE ACTS OR PRACTICES BY META IN VIOLATION OF THE INDIANA DECEPTIVE CONSUMER SALES ACT, IND. CODE § 24-5-0.5-3(a), -3(b)(1), AND -3(b)(2) COUNT XIX: KNOWING VIOLATIONS OF THE INDIANA DECEPTIVE CONSUMER SALES ACT AND INCURABLE DECEPTIVE ACTS, IND. CODE § 24-5-0.5-1 et seq. COUNT XX: DECEPTIVE ACTS OR PRACTICES BY META IN VIOLATION OF THE KANSAS CONSUMER PROTECTION ACT, K.S.A. § 50-626 COUNT XXI: UNCONSCIONABLE ACTS OR PRACTICES BY META IN VIOLATION OF THE KANSAS CONSUMER PROTECTION ACT, K.S.A. §50-627 COUNT XXII: VIOLATIONS OF KENTUCKY CONSUMER PROTECTION ACT, KY. REV. STAT. CHAPTER § 367 et seq. COUNT XXIII: VIOLATIONS OF LOUISIANA UNFAIR TRADE PRACTICES AND CONSUMER PROTECTION LAW, LA. REV. STAT. ANN. §§ 51:1401 to 1428 COUNT XXIV: VIOLATIONS OF THE MAINE UNFAIR TRADE PRACTICES ACT, ME. REV. STAT. ANN. tit. 5, § 207 COUNT XXV: VIOLATION OF THE MICHIGAN CONSUMER PROTECTION ACT, MICH. COMP. LAWS § 445.901 et seq. COUNT XXVI: DECEPTIVE TRADE PRACTICES MINN. STAT. § 325D.43 et seq. COUNT XXVII: UNFAIR OR UNCONSCIONABLE ACTS MINN. STAT. § 325D.43 et seq. COUNT XXVIII: UNFAIR AND DECEPTIVE ACTS OR PRACTICES BY META IN VIOLATION OF THE MISSOURI MERCHANDISING PRACTICES ACT (MO. REV. STAT. § 407.020) COUNT XXIX: DECEPTIVE ACTS OR PRACTICES BY META IN VIOLATION OF THE NEBRASKA CONSUMER PROTECTION ACT COUNT XXX: UNFAIR ACTS OR PRACTICES BY META IN VIOLATION OF THE NEBRASKA CONSUMER PROTECTION ACT COUNT XXXI: DECEPTIVE ACTS OR PRACTICES BY META IN VIOLATION OF THE NEBRASKA UNIFORM DECEPTIVE TRADE PRACTICES ACT COUNT XXXII: UNCONSCIONABLE ACTS OR PRACTICES BY META IN VIOLATION OF THE NEBRASKA UNIFORM DECEPTIVE TRADE PRACTICES ACT COUNT XXXIII: VIOLATIONS OF THE NEW JERSEY CONSUMER FRAUD ACT, N.J. STAT. ANN. §§ 56:8-1 to 227 COUNT XXXIV: VIOLATION OF N.Y. GENERAL BUSINESS LAW § 349 COUNT XXXV: VIOLATION OF N.Y. GENERAL BUSINESS LAW § 350 COUNT XXXVI: REPEATED AND PERSISTENT FRAUD IN VIOLATION OF N.Y. EXECUTIVE LAW § 63(12) COUNT XXXVII: REPEATED AND PERSISTENT ILLEGALITY IN VIOLATION OF N.Y. EXECUTIVE LAW § 63(12) COUNT XXXVIII: VIOLATION OF FTC ACT § 5 IN VIOLATION OF N.Y. EXECUTIVE LAW § 63(12) COUNT XXXIX: VIOLATIONS OF THE NORTH CAROLINA UNFAIR OR DECEPTIVE TRADE PRACTICES ACT, N.C.G.S. § 75-1.1 (BY STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA) COUNT XL: DECEPTIVE ACTS OR PRACTICES BY META IN VIOLATION OF N.D. CENT. CODE §51-15-02 (BY NORTH DAKOTA) COUNT XLI: UNLAWFUL ACTS OR PRACTICES BY META IN VIOLATION OF N.D. CENT. CODE §51-15-02 (BY NORTH DAKOTA) COUNT XLII: VIOLATIONS OF OHIO CONSUMER SALES PRACTICES ACT – UNFAIR OR DECEPTIVE ACTS OR PRACTICES - OHIO REVISED CODE § 1345.02 COUNT XLIII: VIOLATIONS OF OHIO CONSUMER SALES PRACTICES ACT – UNCONSCIONABLE CONSUMER SALES ACTS OR PRACTICES - OHIO REVISED CODE §1345.03 COUNT XLIV: VIOLATIONS OF OREGON’S UNLAWFUL TRADE PRACTICES ACT (UTPA), O.R.S. § 646.607(1) COUNT XLV: VIOLATIONS OF OREGON’S UTPA, O.R.S. § 646.608(1)(e) COUNT XLVI: VIOLATIONS OF OREGON’S UTPA, O.R.S. § 646.608(1)(t) COUNT XLVII: DECEPTIVE ACTS OR PRACTICES BY META IN VIOLATION OF THE PENNSYLVANIA UNFAIR TRADE PRACTICES AND CONSUMER PROTECTION LAW (UTPCPL) COUNT XLVIII: UNFAIR ACTS OR PRACTICES BY META IN VIOLATION OF THE PENNSYLVANIA UNFAIR TRADE PRACTICES AND CONSUMER PROTECTION LAW (UTPCPL) COUNT XLIX: VIOLATIONS OF RHODE ISLAND DECEPTIVE TRADE PRACTICES ACT, R.I. GEN. L. §§ 6-13.1-1 TO 6-13.1-10 COUNT L: VIOLATION OF THE SOUTH CAROLINA UNFAIR TRADE PRACTICES ACT, S.C. CODE ANN. SECTION 39-5-10 et seq. COUNT LI: VIOLATIONS OF VIRGINIA CONSUMER PROTECTION ACT, VA. CODE §§ 59.1-198 TO 59.1-207 COUNT LII: DECEPTIVE ACTS OR PRACTICES IN VIOLATION OF THE WASHINGTON CONSUMER PROTECTION ACT, WASH. REV. CODE § 19.86.020 COUNT LIII: UNFAIR ACTS OR PRACTICES BY META IN VIOLATION OF THE WASHINGTON CONSUMER PROTECTION ACT, WASH. REV. CODE § 19.86.020 COUNT LIV: DECEPTIVE ACTS OR PRACTICES BY META IN VIOLATION OF WISCONSIN’S DECEPTIVE TRADE PRACTICES ACT, WIS. STAT. § 100.18(1) PRAYER FOR RELIEF About HackerNoon Legal PDF Series: We bring you the most important technical and insightful public domain court case filings. This court case 4:23-cv-05448 retrieved on October 24, 2023, from is part of the public domain. The court-created documents are works of the federal government, and under copyright law, are automatically placed in the public domain and may be shared without legal restriction. Washingtonpost.com

Meta Platforms Face Sweeping Multi-State Legal Action Over Child Safety Violations

If the thought of an AI model trained on Facebook and Instagram posts frightens you, boy, do we have news for you. Meta wowed crowds at the company's annual Connect conference last week after CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the launch of Meta AI, a virtual assistant partly trained on publicly available Facebook and Instagram posts. We're sure someone, somewhere thought this was a good idea, and in practice, it might be, but the idea that our collective posts served as the basis of training yet another LLM should ring alarm bells. Meta's top policy executive clarified that a vast majority of the data used to train Meta AI was publicly available, and that the company shunned private posts and texts, presumably, so users don't become too uncomfortable with the idea of having their data trails serve as the basis of an AI that ultimately benefits one of the most evil corporations in the world. As if the details on exactly how Meta AI was trained weren't grim enough, the company's President of Global Affairs Nick Clegg told Reuters that Meta believed any copyrighted material used in training the assistant, which was built using a custom version of Meta's Llama 2 large language model, fell under the existing fair use doctrine. Of course, the company has lawyers at the ready if creators feel otherwise because Clegg then added that Meta expects a "fair amount of litigation" on the use of copyrighted materials and suspected all of this was "going to play out in litigation." When all is said and done, it seems Meta too is interested in the AI pie to remain relevant, having made no significant mention of augmented and virtual reality at the Connect conference (Zuckerberg's obsession up until recently). Facebook ranked #1 on HackerNoon's Tech Company Rankingsthis week. Instagram was in the #7 spot. After Stealing the Internet, Is Amazon Eyeing AI Next? 👁️ Not to be left behind by some of its peers, Jeff Bezos' Amazon has decided to invest up to $4 billion in a San Francisco-based AI startup called Anthropic to rival the likes of Microsoft's OpenAI, the creator of the hit ChatGPT. The ecommerce giant has made an initial investment of $1.25 billion with an option to pay another $2.75 billion that can be triggered by either side. The total investment is valued at an eye-popping $4 billion. According to media reports, Anthropic is the developer of a generative AI model called Claude that is designed to rival OpenAI's ChatGPT. In Amazon's case, the company plans to use the capabilities of Claude to enhance customer experiences, which means you can expect it to come to an Alexa near you. Other media reports indicated that Amazon's employees and cloud customers will gain early access to technology from Anthropic as part of the deal. All in all, it looks like the AI space is shaping up to be a hot bed for mergers and acquisitions. As mature companies snap up promising companies in the space, one has to wonder: after stealing the internet, are tech giants eyeing AI next? Amazon ranked #14 on HackerNoon's Tech Company Rankings. 👋 You’re reading part 2 of HackerNoon's Tech Company News Brief, a weekly collection of tech goodness that combines HackerNoon's proprietary data with internet trends to determine which companies are rising and falling in the public consciousness. Part 1 went live yesterday. Prefer reading the whole thing a day early AND in one go? No problemo! Just subscribe here to receive the complete newsletter in your inbox every Tuesday. \In Other News.. 📰* AMD CEO Lisa Su on the AI revolution and competing with Nvidia — via The Verge.


Elon Musk's X Corp in another legal fight over unpaid rent, this time as plaintiff — via Reuters.


This is Financial Advice — via YouTube.


Google launches $399 Chromebook Plus category — via TechCrunch.


Atari 2600+ sees its future in retro gaming — via CNN.


How AI works, in plain English: Three great reads — via Axios.


Apple will issue a software update to address iPhone 15 overheating complaints — via CNBC. And that's a wrap! Don't forget to share this newsletter with your family and friends! See y'all next week. PEACE! ☮️ — Sheharyar Khan, Editor, Business Tech @ HackerNoon *All rankings are current as of Monday. To see how the rankings have changed, please visit the Tech Company Rankings page. If the thought of an AI model trained on Facebook and Instagram posts frightens you, boy, do we have news for you. Facebook Facebook Instagram Instagram Meta wowed crowds at the company's annual Connect conference last week after CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the launch of Meta AI, a virtual assistant partly trained on publicly available Facebook and Instagram posts. We're sure someone, somewhere thought this was a good idea, and in practice, it might be, but the idea that our collective posts served as the basis of training yet another LLM should ring alarm bells. Meta's top policy executive clarified that a vast majority of the data used to train Meta AI was publicly available, and that the company shunned private posts and texts, presumably, so users don't become too uncomfortable with the idea of having their data trails serve as the basis of an AI that ultimately benefits one of the most evil corporations in the world . too evil corporations in the world evil corporations in the world As if the details on exactly how Meta AI was trained weren't grim enough, the company's President of Global Affairs Nick Clegg told Reuters that Meta believed any copyrighted material used in training the assistant, which was built using a custom version of Meta's Llama 2 large language model, fell under the existing fair use doctrine. Of course, the company has lawyers at the ready if creators feel otherwise because Clegg then added that Meta expects a "fair amount of litigation" on the use of copyrighted materials and suspected all of this was "going to play out in litigation." how told told When all is said and done, it seems Meta too is interested in the AI pie to remain relevant, having made no significant mention of augmented and virtual reality at the Connect conference (Zuckerberg's obsession up until recently). obsession obsession Facebook ranked #1 on HackerNoon's Tech Company Rankings this week. Instagram was in the #7 spot. Tech Company Rankings Tech Company Rankings After Stealing the Internet, Is Amazon Eyeing AI Next? 👁️ After Stealing the Internet, Is Amazon Eyeing AI Next? Not to be left behind by some of its peers, Jeff Bezos' Amazon has decided to invest up to $4 billion in a San Francisco-based AI startup called Anthropic to rival the likes of Microsoft 's OpenAI, the creator of the hit ChatGPT. Amazon Amazon Microsoft Microsoft The ecommerce giant has made an initial investment of $1.25 billion with an option to pay another $2.75 billion that can be triggered by either side. The total investment is valued at an eye-popping $4 billion. According to media reports, Anthropic is the developer of a generative AI model called Claude that is designed to rival OpenAI's ChatGPT. In Amazon's case, the company plans to use the capabilities of Claude to enhance customer experiences, which means you can expect it to come to an Alexa near you . Alexa near you Alexa near you Other media reports indicated that Amazon's employees and cloud customers will gain early access to technology from Anthropic as part of the deal. indicated indicated All in all, it looks like the AI space is shaping up to be a hot bed for mergers and acquisitions. As mature companies snap up promising companies in the space, one has to wonder: after stealing the internet, are tech giants eyeing AI next? stealing stealing Amazon ranked #14 on HackerNoon's Tech Company Rankings. 👋 You’re reading part 2 of HackerNoon's Tech Company News Brief, a weekly collection of tech goodness that combines HackerNoon's proprietary data with internet trends to determine which companies are rising and falling in the public consciousness. Part 1 went live yesterday. Prefer reading the whole thing a day early AND in one go? No problemo! Just subscribe here to receive the complete newsletter in your inbox every Tuesday. 👋 You’re reading part 2 of HackerNoon's Tech Company News Brief, a weekly collection of tech goodness that combines HackerNoon's proprietary data with internet trends to determine which companies are rising and falling in the public consciousness. Part 1 went live yesterday. Prefer reading the whole thing a day early AND in one go? No problemo! Just subscribe here to receive the complete newsletter in your inbox every Tuesday. You’re reading part 2 of HackerNoon's Tech Company News Brief, a weekly collection of tech goodness that combines HackerNoon's proprietary data with internet trends to determine which companies are rising and falling in the public consciousness. Part 1 went live yesterday. Prefer reading the whole thing a day early AND in one go? No problemo! Just subscribe here to receive the complete newsletter in your inbox every Tuesday. part 2 Part 1 Part 1 here complete \In Other News.. 📰 * \In Other News.. 📰 AMD CEO Lisa Su on the AI revolution and competing with Nvidia — via The Verge. Elon Musk's X Corp in another legal fight over unpaid rent, this time as plaintiff — via Reuters. This is Financial Advice — via YouTube. Google launches $399 Chromebook Plus category — via TechCrunch. Atari 2600+ sees its future in retro gaming — via CNN. How AI works, in plain English: Three great reads — via Axios. Apple will issue a software update to address iPhone 15 overheating complaints — via CNBC. AMD CEO Lisa Su on the AI revolution and competing with Nvidia — via The Verge. AMD CEO Lisa Su on the AI revolution and competing with Nvidia — via The Verge . The Verge The Verge Elon Musk's X Corp in another legal fight over unpaid rent, this time as plaintiff — via Reuters. Elon Musk's X Corp in another legal fight over unpaid rent, this time as plaintiff — via Reuters . Reuters Reuters This is Financial Advice — via YouTube. This is Financial Advice — via YouTube . YouTube YouTube Google launches $399 Chromebook Plus category — via TechCrunch. Google launches $399 Chromebook Plus category — via TechCrunch . TechCrunch TechCrunch Atari 2600+ sees its future in retro gaming — via CNN. Atari 2600+ sees its future in retro gaming — via CNN . CNN CNN How AI works, in plain English: Three great reads — via Axios. How AI works, in plain English: Three great reads — via Axios . Axios Axios Apple will issue a software update to address iPhone 15 overheating complaints — via CNBC. Apple will issue a software update to address iPhone 15 overheating complaints — via CNBC . CNBC CNBC And that's a wrap! Don't forget to share this newsletter with your family and friends! See y'all next week. PEACE! ☮️ — Sheharyar Khan, Editor, Business Tech @ HackerNoon *All rankings are current as of Monday. To see how the rankings have changed, please visit the Tech Company Rankings page. *All rankings are current as of Monday. To see how the rankings have changed, please visit the Tech Company Rankings page. *All rankings are current as of Monday. To see how the rankings have changed, please visit the Tech Company Rankings page.

Meta Used Your Facebook and Instagram Posts to Create AI Assistant

মেটা আপনার ফেসবুক এবং ইনস্টাগ্রাম পোস্ট ব্যবহার করে চালিত এআই সহকারী তৈরি করে

Meta erstellt mithilfe Ihrer Facebook- und Instagram-Beiträge einen KI-Assistenten

Meta crea un asistente de inteligencia artificial basado en sus publicaciones de Facebook e Instagram

Meta crée un assistant IA alimenté par vos publications Facebook et Instagram

मेटा आपके फेसबुक और इंस्टाग्राम पोस्ट का उपयोग करके एआई असिस्टेंट संचालित बनाता है

Meta が Facebook と Instagram の投稿を活用した AI アシスタントを作成

Meta는 Facebook 및 Instagram 게시물을 사용하여 구동되는 AI 도우미를 만듭니다.

Meta cria assistente de IA com tecnologia de suas postagens do Facebook e Instagram

Meta создает помощника с искусственным интеллектом, использующего ваши посты в Facebook и Instagram

Meta, Facebook ve Instagram Gönderilerinizi Kullanarak Desteklenen Yapay Zeka Asistanı Oluşturuyor

Meta tạo trợ lý AI được hỗ trợ bằng cách sử dụng các bài đăng trên Facebook và Instagram của bạn

Meta 创建由 Facebook 和 Instagram 帖子驱动的人工智能助手

It’s been quite a while since I wrote about specific products. Today, I am going to write about Threads, Instagram’s Twitter counterpart, or in other words, the content generator for meme creators for the next few days. There are numerous amazing articles that did a great job of covering Threads. Adding one of the best articles I came across — . Link I had some interesting thoughts and facts I could think of immediately after reading the article and using the product. Twitter threatening to sue Meta for stealing its “trade secrets?” I wonder how Twitter came up with the idea of Twitter Spaces. Hi Clubhouse 👋🏼 There were other Twitter alternatives that came up like Mastodon and Bluesky, but they weren’t able to achieve mass adoption. How did Threads go about 70 million (and counting) downloads so quickly? It’s simple. Other apps are actual downloads, and they were acquiring new users, but these were funneled users from Instagram. This is so stupid to compare how many days Facebook or WhatsApp took to reach 1 million users as the user base with smartphones and internet connections was so low when those products came into the market. Unfortunately, there is no inflation adjustment that can be done for these numbers. As someone who loves numbers, if you take a look at your Instagram profile after you installed Threads, you would be able to see which user you are. I am user #4,653,803. Let’s be honest, Twitter is a disaster after Elon Musk’s takeover. Especially limiting the posts to 600 tweets per day for free users but also premium users (who pay $8/month for Twitter Blue) to 6000 tweets per day. Feature comparison: Source: Twitter and Meta *Not applicable to Twitter Blue users. Verification is only for paid members on Twitter but it’s for both verified and paid members on Instagram. I started using Twitter only because I did not have many followers, and I followed only a few pages or people. My feed used to be clean, but Threads is definitely chaotic for me right now. Can’t delete Threads account Moving into the product perspective of these two products by digging into their company mission, vision, problems they try to solve, etc. Twitter : To give everyone the power to create and share ideas and information instantly, without barriers. Twitter’s mission Vision: We believe in free expression and think every voice has the power to impact the world. Twitter focuses on providing a real-time, public platform for users to share their thoughts, opinions, and news and engage in conversations. This enables users to connect with a broader audience, stay updated on current events, trending topics, and hashtags and follow accounts of interest or celebrities of interest. Basically, it helped amplify the voices of everyday people and built a community that engaged on a global scale. Threads (Instagram/Meta) : Giving people the power to build community and bring the world closer together. Meta’s mission Vision: People use Meta products to stay connected with friends and family, discover what’s going on in the world, and share and express what matters to them. Instagram’s mission statement is the same as above, but the statement is slightly a modified version of the above: We bring you closer to the people and things you love, and the of Threads is to take what Instagram does best and expand that to text, creating a positive and creative space to express your ideas. vision vision If we analyze the mission statements above, it does seem very clear that Threads definitely is helping Meta achieve their mission and vision. As Instagram’s CEO, Adam Mosseri mentioned in an : “The goal isn’t to replace Twitter. The goal is to create a public square for communities on Instagram that never really embraced Twitter and for communities on Twitter (and other platforms) that are interested in a less angry place for conversations, but not all of Twitter.” interview So technically, the problem Threads is solving is the same as Twitter, and it also helps them with their goals. But why now? Instagram’s user base is 2 billion while Twitter’s is around 300 million (rough estimate based on Google search). While we can give full credit to Twitter for what it has achieved so far, it’s not easy for new competitors in the space to reach this user base as they need to start right from scratch. Whereas Instagram can utilize its existing userbase and also given the current situation at Twitter with no real product people to lead the vision, Meta is taking full advantage and increasing their market share. While this may go either way given Meta’s reputation in data and security, they are making hay while the sun shines. It’s too early to say if it’s a Twitter killer, but if Elon keeps taking decisions similar to today, Threads might actually become a Twitter killer. But what scares me the most is the monopolization of Meta in the social media space. Feature Image Source: AI-generated from https://gencraft.com/generate using the prompt Twitter bird on fire.

Threads — From the Perspective of a Product Manager

Dear Hackers, In my recent write-up on , I speculated we could soon see other social media giants making big NFT pivots. Reddit avatar NFTs It didn’t take long for that speculation to bear out, as this week Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta announced it would be launching an “end-to-end” NFT toolkit for Instagram users. Love it or hate it, the news is huge. By huge I mean the potential reach of this development is , seeing as how Instagram has +1.4 billion users. That’s 18% of everyone in the world! literally massive Let’s dive into what we can expect from this NFT toolkit and also touch on the rise of web3’s native social media ecosystem for today’s post! -WMP Instagram goes long on NFTs https://twitter.com/Meta/status/1587929277864910849?s=20&t=GOtyi0pdszAlEblP6FFviQ?embedable=true What’s New This week Meta revealed it would soon introduce the ability for users to — i.e. NFTs — on Instagram. create, buy, and sell digital collectibles The announcement noted: “ .” [Creators will] have an end-to-end toolkit — from creation (starting on the Polygon blockchain) and showcasing, to selling. People can easily support their favorite creators by buying their digital collectibles directly within Instagram. We’re testing these new features with a small group of creators in the US first, and hope to expand to more countries soon Little more is known for now. However, Meta has confirmed Instagram collectibles will be tradable outside of Instagram, for example on NFT marketplaces like OpenSea. Additionally, the metadata for these collectibles will be underpinned by Arweave, a decentralized data storage network that’s surged in popularity in the NFT ecosystem over the past couple of years. https://twitter.com/samecwilliams/status/1587937640342437889?s=20&t=N31zfiFgQ1Gebrkm7MArJQ?embedable=true The Context The news of the NFT toolkit rollout comes as Meta has been ramping up its digital collectibles plans this year. A timeline of the company’s prior collectibles developments is as follows: — May 2022 Meta started testing the ability to connect wallets and display Ethereum, Polygon, and Flow NFTs on Facebook or Instagram — August 2022 Meta expanded its NFT tests to users in 100 additional countries, added support for new wallets like Coinbase Wallet, and activated collectibles crossposting across Facebook and Instagram — *Meta opened its digital collectibles features to all Facebook and Instagram users in the U.S. September 2022 Why it Matters With nearly , Reddit Collectible Avatars have introduced a whole new “normie” audience to the world of NFTs. 3 million minted to date For perspective, though, Reddit has something like 50 million daily active users (DAUs) right now, while Instagram has 10x that reach at 500 million DAUs. That means Instagram’s digital collectibles program has the potential to reach an absolutely massive amount of people going forward. There are +200 million businesses on Instagram alone, for example! If even a fraction of these users and businesses embrace NFTs via Instagram in the years ahead, then the size of the NFT ecosystem and its user base is poised to swell rapidly soon. Who’s Next? Ark Investment Management CEO Cathie Wood recently told ( ) that she wouldn’t be surprised to see Twitter start work on its own crypto wallet. Bloomberg ~16:00 min. mark I wouldn’t be surprised either. Of course, Twitter already supports adding via wallets like Coinbase Wallet, MetaMask, and Rainbow. The platform also just began testing NFT Tweet Tiles: Ethereum NFT profile pictures https://twitter.com/TwitterDev/status/1585707921433923585?s=20&t=bBk7Hw7lgIt5TUOZSHLZ4g?embedable=true The crypto community is one of Twitter’s most active user groups, and the NFT ecosystem is a significant part of these activity levels, so Twitter’s leadership may eventually decide that offering even more direct crypto and NFT services — e.g. a native Twitter wallet — is a win-win for the company. Decentralized social media rising, too https://twitter.com/StaniKulechov/status/1586782697778724864?s=20&t=9Tz_rxOr0B9E8yo_2VEShQ?embedable=true In web3, we use tech like blockchain and NFTs to further decentralization. Why decentralization? Because the concentration of power in culture and finance leads to all sorts of top-down abuses and disparities. In building with blockchain and NFTs, we seek to level the playing field in bottom-up fashion to give everyone a say and access to open empowering tools they can use to take better control of their own journeys. All that said, decentralized social media — i.e. projects that are built natively on web3 tech — is one area of interest that’s seeing a tremendous surge of building and experimentation lately. https://twitter.com/StaniKulechov/status/1588145445003579394?s=20&t=2c0KTM6CY1el_xmFTKFz8Q?embedable=true No project exemplifies this recent blooming more than , an NFT-based social graph system built on Polygon that’s designed to serve as a foundation for an ecosystem of decentralized social network apps. Lens Protocol https://twitter.com/Crypto_McKenna/status/1587850089229344768?s=20&t=4D7mRxUtddBKucfEwrZcEQ?embedable=true To be sure, Lens, its ecosystem, and the decentralized social media sector in general are incredibly early on. We’re still at least a couple years away from these solutions being able to handle massive user bases. Yet the early progress around these web3 social plays is encouraging and gives us hope they’ll be ready for the limelight soon enough. https://twitter.com/0xChristina/status/1586774671281758209?s=20&t=NET1cJ2SUM9PtlziLXd6vA?embedable=true Polygon the Home of Web3 Social? Reddit, Instagram, Lens — what do they have in common? They’re all relying on , the Ethereum scaling solution, to support their early NFT efforts. Polygon Indeed, Reddit avatars are minted on Polygon, Instagram is starting its collectibles program on Polygon, Lens profiles and posts are minted on Polygon, etc. With its affordable and rapid transactions, plus its scaling roadmap and bizdev efforts, the Polygon team has been on a tear when it comes to locking down the early makings of a teeming social media scene. At this rate, don’t be surprised if other mainstream social media companies make their way to Polygon. Action steps 📱 Check out Meta’s Instagram NFT toolkit news 🧱 Read my previous post Zora launches Nouns Builder Author Bio is a professional writer and creator of —a Bankless newsletter focused on the emergence of NFTs in the cryptoeconomy. He’s also recently been contributing content to Bankless, JPG, and beyond! William M. Peaster Metaversal Also Published Here

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INSTAGRAM (META)

instagram.com

1K-5K employees

Since 2010

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INSTAGRAM (META)

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