1 down, 1000s to go
This week “proves that social media companies are not immune from responsibility for their impact on users,” CNN’s Clare Duffy writes after covering the jury verdicts
in both California and New Mexico.
“Together,” she writes, “the decisions could herald major changes for Big Tech, whether through the courts, Congress or beyond.”
In this new story, Duffy notes that “history is littered with companies that have lost significant court cases with massive penalties and survived just fine, of course. But often those cases brought changes within companies — to product ingredients or manufacturing, for example. In many cases, waves of legal pressure have also sparked cultural change, shifting how consumers engage with these companies and their products.”
That’s what Big Tech critics are hoping for. They’re saying that the verdicts will put more pressure on Congress to finally pass the Kids Online Safety Act. They’re also hoping that the verdicts give more momentum to phone-free school campaigns and youth social media bans.
“The jury tells you where public opinion is,” Rahm Emanuel remarked after the L.A. ruling came down yesterday afternoon.
“I do think people are shifting. Regular citizens,” Kara Swisher said on “AC360.” “Because our regulators and our political class has not done anything about this.”
“Now, again, these companies have unlimited funds” to appeal verdicts and push back, she added. “They have a friend in the Trump administration who is going to try to stop this kind of stuff. But there’s a movement across the globe happening right now, and it’s coming here now.”
>> “More than 3,000 other similar lawsuits against Meta, YouTube, Snapchat and TikTok” are pending in California courts, the story atop the front page of today’s Wall Street Journal says.
>> Inside the paper, the WSJ editorial board says the L.A. verdict is a win not for parents, but for trial lawyers. “Extorting companies is certain to have downstream consequences,” the editors warn in a piece about “the social-media shakedown.”
The ‘Big Tobacco’ analogy — and its limits |
This morning’s (fantastic) New York Post headline is “META CULPA.” For Big Tech’s biggest critics, the L.A. verdict was literally years in the making. Groups with names like Parents for Safe Online Spaces and Mothers Against Media Addiction hailed the finding of liability, and some argued that this is “social media’s Big Tobacco moment.” (Here’s my CNN.com write about those reactions.) I want to point out that the smoking comparison only goes so far. People didn’t launch businesses and learn new skills and improve their lives with cigarettes the way so many people have done with social media. On the other hand, this conversation ultimately is about health just as warnings against smoking are about health. “Big Tobacco moment” is, as DealBook said today, “a reference to how cigarette makers had to overhaul their businesses — at a huge expense — after courts ruled that some of their products were addictive and harmful.” With Meta and Google, the courts have just started to weigh in. “Social-media cases that have reached a jury recently aren’t past all legal hurdles: they’ve simply cleared the *first* hurdles at the lowest state or federal court,” Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Matt Schettenhelm noted this morning. “There remain substantial legal questions under the First Amendment and Section 230, now teed up for appeals courts.” |
Concerns about unintended consequences |
“Going after speech as a deceptive/addictive ‘product’ will take us to dangerous (and eerily quiet) places,” wrote Will Creeley, legal director at the civil-libertarian Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. “Plenty of would-be censors — like the president — are trying similar end runs around the 1A.” He added: “Design choices are speech — form is an extension of content.” Libertarian commentators similarly warned against the earlier ruling out of New Mexico. The state’s AG Raúl Torrez said on “Squawk Box” yesterday that New Mexico is “going to be asking for injunctive relief.” “That means changes to the design features of the platform itself, real age verification, changes to the algorithm, an independent monitor to oversee those changes and fundamentally a demand that they do business differently in New Mexico,” Torrez said. But in this piece, Reason’s Elizabeth Nolan Brown challenges the notion that this is all about “product design,” saying many of the state’s objections were “so clearly about speech that it’s absurd to pretend otherwise.” The ruling, she says, “opens up a new way for authorities to regulate and sanction online platforms for their users’ speech.” |
Savannah Guthrie opens up |
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”Savannah Guthrie said she believes her mother may have been abducted for ransom because of her fame,” CNN’s Eric Levenson writes in this recap of her heartwrenching “Today” show interview with Hoda Kotb. Viewers could hear Guthrie wrestling with guilt as she said it’s “too much to bear, to think that I brought this to her bedside, that it’s because of me.” I was also struck by the absolute lack of firm info or followup from the apparent kidnappers. Guthrie said she believed that a couple of the purported random notes were real, but nothing seems to have come from that. Ultimately, still, she said, “we don’t know anything.” >> More from the sit-down with Kotb will air tomorrow, including Guthrie’s comments about her plan to return to the “Today” show. |
Taking the war memes seriously |
“Service members and families who lost loved ones say the Trump team’s memes and jokes trivialize combat and sacrifice,” WaPo’s Drew Harwell reports in his latest excellent story. “Trump aides say the backlash sends views soaring.” “They’re completely diminishing what they’re asking the nation to do in Iran,” one retired Army colonel told Harwell. “It seems almost obscene relative to the actual violence and suffering that’s involved with this.” Read on… |
Bill Maher is getting the Twain Prize after all… |
Despite the White House’s insistence last week that Bill Maher would not receive the Mark Twain Prize, the Kennedy Center announced this morning that it will give him the award on June 28, “right before the performing arts center closes for a two-year renovation,” CNN’s Kaanita Iyer reports. The White House has yet to comment on the matter. Remember: Karoline Leavitt shot down the initial reports by declaring, “This is fake news. Bill Maher will NOT be getting this award.” So, what changed? I feel like there’s still another shoe to drop. But Politico’s Daniel Lippman, who broke the news this morning, spoke with an anonymous source who said other anonymous sources leaked “half-baked information” to The Atlantic “before conversations were finalized.” The source added: “There was nothing to confirm at the time and it is not appropriate to get ahead of any settled agreement between multiple parties involved.” So, in other words, it was never “fake news,” just news they didn’t want out yet…? |
Trump brags about his lawsuits against ‘corrupt’ media |
Trump went on an extended rant about the media last night during his speech at the NRCC dinner, saying, “How crooked is CNN? But you know what’s worse? I think ABC fake news is worse, actually. But George Stephanopoulos, they had to pay me $16 million for what they said. They had to pay me $16 million for what they said. CBS had to pay me $38 million for what they said. It’s actually pretty good— you know, if you bring lawsuits against these guys, they’ll, they’re so corrupt that they pay it.” That’s quite an insight — some might say an admission — about his other lawsuits. In fact, Trump brought up his suit against the BBC in the very next sentence. He claimed “they put words in my mouth, sentences and paragraphs,” falsely asserting he never said the words at all. In fact, a BBC documentary stitched different sections of his Ellipsis rally speech together — a bad edit, yes, but not an invention of “things that I never said,” as Trump charged. |
There’s one more layer to this that I want to highlight. It’s about media illiteracy. Continuing on about the BBC, Trump said, “They admitted they were guilty. They admit it. Can you believe it? That’s how crooked they are.” This is a reference to the BBC fessing up about the bad edit and apologizing to Trump for it. Journalistically, admitting the error is a necessary and responsible thing to do. In a media-literate world, it’s a good thing. But in Trump’s telling, it’s a bad thing, proving they’re “crooked.” Trump added, of the BBC suit, “Now it’s only a question of how much do I get.” The BBC recently urged a Florida court to dismiss the case altogether, so… |
It’s official: Former Google exec Matt Brittin will become the BBC director-general in May. “Now, more than ever, we need a thriving BBC that works for everyone in a complex, uncertain and fast-changing world,” he said in a statement. The Guardian’s Michael Savage listed “six urgent issues” for the new boss here… |
‘An advance payment on the future’ |
BBC reporters Paul Glynn and Helen Bushby noted that “some have questioned the BBC’s appointment of someone with a background in tech rather than public service or traditional editorial and broadcasting sectors.” But they quoted former BBC director general/current CNN CEO Mark Thompson welcoming the appointment: “It’s clearly a bold and interesting choice, an advance payment on the future,” Thompson said. Brittin “isn’t a broadcaster or journalist by background but brings skills and experiences to the job that no previous director general has had. He is genuinely public-spirited and strategic and is an interesting and encouraging choice.” |
WBD sets date for shareholder vote |
Warner Bros. Discovery, CNN’s parent, “has set April 23 for a shareholder meeting to vote on its proposed merger with Paramount Skydance,” the WSJ’s Joe Flint reports. “We are working closely with Paramount to close the transaction and deliver its benefits to all stakeholders,” WBD CEO David Zaslav said in a statement… |
>> Will Sommer described how Joe Kent is now at the center of MAGA media infighting over Charlie Kirk’s assassination. (The Bulwark) >> Politico “launched a security review after a private telephone conversation between one of its reporters and an EU official about issues connected to Hungary and Ukraine was apparently intercepted and the recording published online.” (Politico) >> Brendan Carr took to X to “hit back at Gavin Newsom’s criticism of the FCC’s Nexstar-Tegna merger approval.” (TheWrap) >> Trump “appointed Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Oracle Executive Chairman Larry Ellison and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang to a council that will weigh in on AI policy and other issues.” (Reuters) |
xAI seizing on Sora’s demise |
As the Sora postmortems continue, Elon Musk is swooping in: He his artificial intelligence company, xAI, plans to upgrade its AI video generator, seizing on an opening” left by Sora’s demise, Bloomberg’s Carmen Arroyo reports. >> Between the Sora news and the Epic Games layoffs — two external crises for Disney partners — THR’s Alex Weprin branded the double-whammy “Josh D’Amaro’s Trial By Fire.” |
SCOTUS: ISPs not liable for users’ piracy |
The Supreme Court ruled yesterday that internet service providers are not responsible for their users’ piracy of music. The court ruled that Cox Communications “is not liable for copyright infringement because it failed to kick known copyright violators off its network,” CNN’s John Fritze reports. “Holding Cox liable merely for failing to terminate Internet service to infringing accounts would expand secondary copyright liability beyond our precedents,” Clarence Thomas wrote in the court’s opinion. >> Elsewhere in the music world, Google announced “that it’s releasing Lyria 3 Pro, a music generation model” that will “let users create tracks up to three minutes long,” Ivan Mehta reports. (TechCrunch) |
“Jeopardy!” expanding on YouTube |
“The long-running gameshow is launching a special edition for YouTube,” Peter White writes for Deadline. “It marks the first step in a larger expansion of the Jeopardy! YouTube channel.” The first “Jeopardy! YouTube Edition,” coming out on March 31, will have three creator contestants: Monét X Change, Rebecca Black and Brennan Lee Mulligan. |
>> Nearly ten years later… “The producer of ‘House of Cards’ has lost an insurance trial over $29 million in production costs incurred due to the firing of Kevin Spacey in 2017.” (Variety) >> “Utah police are investigating allegations of a third domestic violence incident involving ‘Secret Lives of Mormon Wives’ star Taylor Frankie Paul.” (TheWrap) >> Matt Hamilton, writing for the brand new LA Material startup, seems to have found Bob Iger’s secret Instagram account, with followers including David Geffen, Joshua Kushner and Iger’s wife, Willow Bay. (LA Material) >> Saving the best for last: Ahead of tonight’s “Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette” finale, FX says the series is “FX’s most-watched limited series ever on Hulu and Disney+. Audiences have streamed more than 52 million hours of the first eight episodes.” Note to my wife: Let’s watch tomorrow after work! |