Meta Clashes With Apple, Google
The world’s biggest tech companies are at war over who is responsible for keeping children safe online, with billions of dollars in fines hanging on the outcome at a time when states are passing a raft of differing laws obligating companies to verify users’ ages. Meta Clashes With Apple, Google
Meta Platforms Inc?
and other app developers have been waging war against the policies of Apple Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google, whose app stores together make up more than 80% of all global downloads for mobiles. Lobbyists from both sides are crisscrossing the country, seeking to weaken or change legislation in ways that would minimise financial risk for their employers.
Just in the past year, three states – Utah,
Texas and Louisiana – passed laws requiring tech companies to verify the ages of users, secure parental approval for those under 18 years old, and ensure protection against potentially negative digital interactions for minors. Now lobbyists for all three companies are converging on South Carolina and Ohio, the next likely candidates for such regulation. The debate has grown more pressing since the Supreme Court this summer ruled that age-verification laws are constitutional under certain conditions. On Wednesday, an industry group petitioned the court to block a Mississippi social media age-verification law, setting up an important decision in just three weeks.
🔵ऐसे डेली न्यूज़ देखने के लिए हमारे टेलेग्राम चैनल ज्वाइन करें
🟢ऐसे डेली न्यूज़ देखने के लिए हमारे व्हाट्सएप चैनल ज्वाइन करें
Child-protection advocates say it is essential for tech firms
to confirm users are children intended to make the online experience a safer one for kids. Parents and advocates claim that social media platforms push kids in harmful and toxic online spots, where they run into damaging information about self harm, eating disorders, drugs and so on.
Blame Game
Meta backers argue that app stores should bear the responsibility for spotting whether minors are accessing inappropriate content, comparing the app store to a liquor store that checks customers’ ids. Apple and Google, on the other hand, assert age verification regulations invade children’s privacy and point out that each individual app is in a better position to Check ages. Apple says it would be more accurate to describe the app store as a mall and Meta stores as the distillery
The three new state laws place responsibility directly on the shoulders of app stores, evidence Meta’s arguments are making headway. The firm worked in favour of Utah and Louisiana laws, two of which impose asking Apple and Google via proxy why they should track users’ ages. Similar pieces of legislation backed by Meta have been introduced in 20 states. Legislation in the US Senate proposed by Republican Senator Mike Lee of Utah would make the app stores themselves responsible for checking ages
Still, Meta’s record in the states has been mixed.?
At least eight more states have passed laws since 2024 forcing social media platforms to verify users’ ages and protect minors online. Apple and Google have hired dozens of lobbyists in those states to argue Meta is throwing in the towel on guarding children. Meta Clashes With Apple
