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The End of Infinite Scroll. How 450 School Districts Took Down Mark Zuckerberg.
The End of Infinite Scroll. How 450 School Districts Took Down Mark Zuckerberg.
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Meta was facing a $1.4 trillion extinction event… until they paid to make it go away.
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For years Mark Zuckerberg and his inner circle thought they were untouchable.
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They had engineered the ‘Like’ button to exploit children,
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trading safety for aggressive platform growth. They thought Meta was too big, too wealthy,
0:17
and too powerful to fail. They were wrong.
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A legal loophole threatened to bring Zuckerberg’s social media
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empire crashing down. A loophole that could delete the ‘Like’ button forever.
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And Meta’s high priced lawyers were scrambling… because they had no idea how to stop it.
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The panic spreading through Meta offices was all down to a 30 year old law.
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Section 230. Passed back in 1996,
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this single legislation helped lay the foundations of the internet we know today.
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Essentially, the law states that if someone posts a defamatory comment, or engages in hate speech
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on Facebook, or other platforms, they’re responsible. Not the social media platform.
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For decades, this was Meta’s ultimate get out of jail free card.
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Without this protection, social media sites couldn’t exist. It’s the reason companies like
1:01
Meta grew into trillion dollar conglomerates. And they did it while ignoring the ethical
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nightmare brewing in the background. Section 230 was their shield.
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Or, at least, that’s how it seemed. Until 2021.
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That was when a group of state Attorneys General, including California Attorney General Rob Bonta,
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found a crack in the shield. They already had strong reason to believe that social media was
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dangerous for children. They believed Meta knew that… and even made it worse.
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But they didn’t have the hard data. Then the “Facebook Files” were leaked.
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Whistleblower and former Facebook Product Manager, Frances Haugen exposed internal
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documents that proved Meta knew its platforms were toxic. They knew their sites were linked
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to a youth mental health crisis. Even as executives publicly denied the accusations,
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their own internal memos said otherwise. Now the attorneys had the evidence, but they still
1:51
had a problem. Attacking the content on Facebook and Instagram was pointless. The moment a lawsuit
1:56
targets posts or comments on these platforms, Meta’s lawyers just have to point to Section 230.
2:01
The case would be dead on arrival. But what about the code?
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Don’t go after the content. Go after the architecture underneath it all.
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At that point, Meta wouldn’t be able to hide behind Section 230, anymore.
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The lawyers argued that features, like the “Like” button and infinite scrolling
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were explicitly engineered to hijack people’s natural neurobiology.
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They claimed that these platforms were built to trigger stimulating rushes,
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forcing compulsive and addictive behavior. Meta hadn’t built a social media network.
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They had created a digital slot machine to hook children.
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Meta had served up seriously flawed products and no warnings of the kinds
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of negative effects they might cause. And the word ‘products’ was intentional.
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That meant prosecutors didn’t have to worry about Section 230. They weren’t taking aim at what users
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were doing or saying on Facebook. They weren’t arguing for censorship or for Facebook’s bosses
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to ban certain users or delete certain posts. They were saying the platforms were
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hazardous to people’s brain chemistry. And they had evidence to back them up.
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Take the “Like” button. On the surface, it looks simple. It’s just a button that people
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use to express appreciation, a way to show that they found something interesting or entertaining.
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But there’s much more to it. Studies show that every time
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social media users receive “Likes,” their brains release a brief burst of dopamine. Known as the
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“happy hormone” or the “pleasure molecule,” this chemical is responsible for feelings of pleasure,
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motivation, and satisfaction. But it doesn’t last long.
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Every hit is a very brief “high”. A tiny period of intense joy that quickly fades,
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leaving people wanting more. Prosecutors argue it’s one of
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the reasons why the “Like” button was designed and deployed in the first place: it keeps people
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logging onto their Facebook feeds each day. It keeps them connected, engaged,
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and addicted to social media. They’re always waiting for that next “Like” to pop and that
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next dopamine release to hit them. Prosecutors have also pointed to other Meta-made features as
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proof that the company’s products were designed to prey on people’s mental and emotional health.
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Like variable rewards and reinforcements. Behavioral psychology studies in both animals
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and humans have found that unpredictable rewards tend to create the strongest repetitive habits.
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Say you ask someone to complete a simple task over and over again and you give them a treat as
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a reward for their actions. But instead of dishing out treats on a fixed basis - like after every 10
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tasks completed - you hand them out randomly. They might get one after doing just 2 tasks,
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then another after 12, then after five, and so on. The subject knows they’ll get a reward eventually.
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But there’s no fixed schedule. All they know is that if they complete their tasks, there’s
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a chance they will be rewarded. As a result, they start working harder, completing tasks at a faster
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pace in order to maximize their reward rate. The exact mechanism is used in slot machines.
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People know that pulling the lever might lead to a reward. The machines are designed to pay
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out just enough - on a random basis - to keep people pulling again and again.
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Prosecutors in the Meta lawsuit have argued that Facebook and Instagram function in a similar way.
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When users open up the sites, their feeds and notifications often don’t load up right away.
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Instead, there’s a slight delay between opening the page and receiving the latest
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batch of “Likes” and notifications. That tiny delay can create a sudden
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spike of dopamine, as the user anticipates what will happen next: “Will I have any new
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notifications?” “Did someone like my latest post?” “Did my picture get any comments?”
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It’s easy to see how it can become addictive. It’s why so many social
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media users will refresh their feeds over and over or check their phones on a regular basis.
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Then, there’s the “infinite scroll.” It’s practically ubiquitous across social
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media sites today. From Facebook to Reddit, plenty of platforms now allow users to scroll endlessly,
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seeing one fresh post after another. It didn’t used to be that way.
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There was a time in the digital media landscape where pages had fixed ends.
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You got to the bottom, and that was that. Your eyes were able to detach themselves from
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the screen. Your brain was able to take a break before the next batch of content came along.
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Meta tore up those foundations and built something completely different.
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It popularized the concept of continuous social feeds.
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The next set of posts were pre-loading before the user even had time to swipe down far enough.
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The result was a neverending stream of content. And what happens when users can keep on scrolling
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and see more and more posts, pictures, and videos? They scroll far more than ever before.
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It’s like the “bottomless bowl” study, which involved subjects eating soup from bowls that were
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subtly refilled as their contents were consumed. The study found that the people with the so-called
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“bottomless bowls” ended up eating over 70% more soup than those with regular ones.
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The visual cue telling them to stop - an empty bowl - never appeared.
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Critics of Facebook and similar social sites argue that they employ that same idea:
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if you never let people see the end of their feed, they never have to stop scrolling.
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They’re incentivized to keep going just that little bit further, each time. If they don’t,
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they might miss a post. It’s FOMO.
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The fear of missing out. The prosecution claims that Meta made
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all of the features and systems integral parts of its platforms. Then unleashed them on some of the
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most vulnerable people in society - adolescents. As they progress through their formative teenage
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years, young people’s brains and bodies are still developing. They’re undergoing major physical
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and hormonal changes, coping with an increasingly complex array of challenges and responsibilities.
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They’re more likely to experience mental health issues like anxiety and depression than other age
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groups. Because their brains are still growing and changing, they can struggle to cope with stress,
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anxiety, peer pressure, and conflict. These factors create a unique cognitive
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cocktail that puts teens at risk of not only using social media excessively,
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but being mentally affected by it as well. Critics argue Meta was made to exploit that fact.
7:40
Its engagement-based ranking algorithms were designed to drive dopamine releases
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and maximize engagement. Data suggests that the kind of content that keeps the average
7:49
teen engaged is, more often than not, negative or harmful. Like content related to social anxieties,
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eating disorders, and body dysmorphia. The more people engaged with this kind
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of content, the more the algorithm began to push it. It reached the point where
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young users were starting to see their feeds filled with stress or anxiety inducing posts.
8:09
Naturally, Meta’s executives denied all this for years.
8:13
But in 2021, Frances Haugen’s smoking gun was revealed in all its ugly glory.
8:18
The Former Meta Product Manager shared thousands of internal documents from Facebook’s servers
8:23
with the news media and the wider world. In doing so, she revealed just how much Meta really knew
8:29
about the psychological impacts of its products. The leaks were damning.
8:33
“We make body image issues worse for 1 in 3 teen girls,” read a
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statement on one internal presentation. “32% of teen girls said that when they
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felt bad about their bodies, Instagram made them feel worse,” revealed another.
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Meta’s researchers also concluded that ”Teens blame Instagram for increases in the rate
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of anxiety and depression. This reaction was unprompted and consistent across all groups.”
8:56
And it got worse. One study said that
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17.5% of girls suffered more with their eating disorders after spending time on the platform.
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Meta knew that its products were causing harm. It did nothing.
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In the eyes of parents, educators, and legal professionals, it was reckless. It
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was harmful. And it was wrong. But it didn’t end there.
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Another whistleblower, Arturo Bejar, who worked as a Meta engineer,
9:20
also spoke out against the company. Testifying before Congress,
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he revealed that he had spent a year studying the harm that Facebook and Instagram had on teenagers.
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He emailed a report of his findings and recommendations for the next best steps to
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the company’s bosses, including Mark Zuckerberg. Bejar states that he never heard back from them.
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Meanwhile, as Meta’s executives were creating their internal slideshows
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and classified research reports about teenage users, people in the real world were suffering.
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Data from 2009 revealed a worrying trend. When smartphones began to flood the teen
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market and algorithms pivoted to maximize engagement, the US - and
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other nations - saw an explosion in mental health problems among the younger generations.
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Between 2009 and 2022 Ever increasing numbers of teenage boys and girls also
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reported signs and symptoms of anxiety, depression, and even negative thoughts.
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Meta knew it was going on. It knew it was playing a part.
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And it didn’t do enough to change that. That’s what prosecutors based much of their
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opening arguments on when the company was officially placed on trial on August 18th,
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2026. It had taken 3 years to get there, but now, Meta was in the dock.
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Inside the Ronald V. Dellums Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse in Oakland, California,
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the state’s Deputy Attorney General, Meghan O'Neill, issued her opening remarks.
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She pointed at the leaked documents as proof that the company’s own research teams
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had dug into how teenage minds work and what makes them addicted to social sites. Instead
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of acting on that information, the company’s engineers exploited it for their own gain.
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They engineered features and platform “improvements”
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to capitalize on teenagers' emotional insecurities and still-developing brains.
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“The young ones are the best ones,” read the header of one internal memo,
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which O’Neill shared with the court. It highlighted the malicious and insidious
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undercurrent flowing through the executive offices of one of the world’s wealthiest companies.
11:09
The prosecution is expected to argue that Meta’s ultimate goal is getting users as
11:14
invested and engaged as possible with its products. To do that, it’s alleged the company
11:18
not only created exploitative features, but also violated the federal Children’s
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Online Privacy Protection Act, or COPPA. COPPA was made to keep children under
11:27
the age of 13 safe in an increasingly digital world. Internet platforms were
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forbidden from collecting personal data or building virtual profiles of younger users.
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The lawsuit states that even though Meta put a 13+ age limit on its products, it knew that
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younger users were still accessing Instagram and Facebook. And it still collected personal
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information about them, without parental consent. The evidence suggests that the company turned a
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blind eye to its swathes of underage users, allowed pre-teens to bypass its most basic
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of age gates, and used unlawfully-obtained personal data to feed its insatiable algorithms.
12:02
New Jersey Attorney General Jennifer Davenport told NPR:
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“They're putting the profits … over the health of a generation of young people.”
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Meta lawyer Paul Schmidt has countered that Meta has and continues to take steps to improve
12:14
the safety and design of its platforms. He claims that the company can’t stop millions
12:18
of underage users from lying about their ages to access its apps, just like it can’t control the
12:23
“negative content” that users share. It remains to be seen which side’s
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argument will prove the most convincing. But there’s a lot riding on this case.
12:31
According to Meta's own legal experts, each individual violation of laws like COPPA carries
12:36
a maximum financial penalty of up to $53,000. When you add that up over literally tens of millions of
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young users across years of usage, Meta claims it could have to pay a jaw-dropping $1.4 trillion.
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The company’s legal team used this figure as a way to illustrate the absurdity of the case.
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It’s the same amount as Meta’s entire market capitalization.
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If Meta was hit with the maximum financial penalty, it would be the equivalent of a
13:02
death sentence. The company would be forced into instantaneous insolvency. But prosecutors and US
13:08
District Judge, Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, have indicated that the financial penalty would be
13:12
closer to the $200 billion mark. Even that would be enormous.
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But Zuckerberg didn’t wait for the verdict. Just days into the trial, Meta capitulated. They struck
13:22
a $18 billion deal to settle the case. They avoided the trillion dollar doomsday scenario,
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but the fallout is still seismic. But money isn’t the real focus here.
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There’s much more to this case. It’s about holding big tech accountable for its
13:35
actions. It’s about proving that these ludicrously wealthy and influential companies can’t be allowed
13:40
to get away with whatever they want, just because they can afford the best lawyers and lobbyists.
13:44
It’s about setting a legal precedent that would send shockwaves across Silicon Valley and change
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the state of social media for generations to come. It’s about shattering the Section 230
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shield and ending the exploitation of people’s natural emotions and neurological pathways.
13:59
Many reporters are already labeling the trial the tech world’s “Big Tobacco Moment.”
14:04
In the 1990s, there were a slew of suits filed against tobacco companies
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which resulted in cigarette firms being forced to pay out hundreds of billions of dollars.
14:12
It rewrote the rules of nicotine marketing and sales forever.
14:16
Back then, there was evidence to prove that the big firms knew their products were dangerous,
14:20
but didn’t bother to warn the public. Meta’s scenario is a little different.
14:25
But the fundamentals are the same. The states say Meta knew what it was
14:29
doing was dangerous, but didn’t stop. It chose engagement and profit over protecting people.
14:34
This landmark case changes everything. Meta is being forced to dismantle its
14:38
digital “slot machines” for minors. Teen accounts face strict 2 hour time limits,
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accounts being blocked from midnight to 6 a.m. and muted automatic push notifications.
14:47
Without those validation and reinforcement systems, sites like Facebook and Instagram
14:51
would no longer have the same level of control over people’s minds and feelings.
14:56
They’d have to transition from “digital slot machines” to what they were originally
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supposed to be: spaces where people keep in touch with friends and family.
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And Meta’s money-making model would take the hit. The company has built an entire empire around
15:08
keeping people engaged with its products. If that all suddenly comes to a grinding halt, if
15:13
engagement gets slashed in half - or worse - then the company’s ad revenue also suffers a knockout
15:18
blow. Its stock price will slide to record lows. But it won’t stop at Meta.
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TikTok and Youtube could be forced to adopt the same age limits and restrictions. Zuckerberg won’t
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want to be at a disadvantage. The algorithm and dopamine releasing features are in the crosshairs.
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The landscape of social media will change forever. The nightmare for Mark Zuckerberg is just
15:38
starting. While he’s fighting a trillion dollar lawsuit, users are abandoning his platforms.
15:43
Watch “It’s Not You. Nobody Likes Facebook Anymore” to find out why. Or click on this.
