Mark Zuckerberg claims people use Instagram because it’s ‘useful’ — but what a joke that is |
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Mark Zuckerberg claims people use Instagram because it’s ‘useful’ — but what a joke that is
A groundbreaking lawsuit against social media companies has dragged the biggest dog in the fight before a jury.
On Wednesday, Mark Zuckerberg testified in a case — brought by a 20-year-old California woman known only as KGM, who claims that social media caused her anxiety and depression — that could set the precedent for whether or not social media companies are liable for alleged harm their platforms cause children.
It was a powerful face-to-face moment between a regular girl representing millions of young Instagram users and a billionaire who has largely been able to hide from the havoc his platform has wreaked on children all around the world.
In court, Zuckerberg reportedly appeared nervous when asked if Instagram is optimized to encourage as much use as possible.
“You should try and create something useful… and if you do, people will naturally want to use it,” he responded, dodging the question. “Our philosophy has always been consistent … to try to build useful services that people connect to. If we do it well, people will spend more time with our services than other things. It’s a pretty normal business dynamic.”
But, as someone who grew up on social media, I can testify that I wasn’t on Instagram because it was useful. I was on it because it was straight-up........