Meta hid harms to children from VR products, whistleblowers allege
A group of six whistleblowers have come forward with allegations of a cover-up of harm to children on Meta’s virtual reality devices and apps,They say the social media company, which owns Facebook and Instagram, and offers a line of VR headsets and games, deleted or doctored internal safety research that showed children being exposed to grooming, sexual harassment and violence in its 3D realms,“Meta knew that underage children were using its products, but figured, ‘Hey, kids drive engagement,’ and it was making them cash,” Jason Sattizahn, one of the whistleblowers who worked on the company’s VR research, said in a statement,“Meta has compromised their internal teams to manipulate research and straight-up erase data that they don’t like,”Sattizahn and the other whistleblowers, all current or former Meta employees, have disclosed these findings and a trove of documents to Congress, according to the Washington Post, which first reported the allegations.
Sattizahn and Cayce Savage, who was Meta’s lead researcher on youth user experience for VR, will appear before the US Senate judiciary subcommittee on privacy, technology and the law on Tuesday,Dani Lever, a Meta spokesperson, said the company has approved 180 studies related to its VR Reality Labs since 2022, which include research on youth safety and wellbeing,“These few examples are being stitched together to fit a predetermined and false narrative,” she said, adding that Meta has introduced features to its VR products to limit unwanted contact and supervision tools for parents,The whistleblower allegations made public on Monday claim that on Meta’s VR products, the company could have done more to ensure children’s safety,The whistleblowers say company managers instructed staff to avoid research that might show evidence of child harm in virtual reality.
In one instance, a researcher was reportedly told to “swallow that ick”.In another instance, a researcher was allegedly told to delete information from an interview they had conducted with a German family, according to the Washington Post.During that interview, a teenage boy told the researcher that his brother, who was under the age of 10, had “frequently encountered strangers” in Meta’s VR and that “adults had sexually propositioned his little brother”.The allegations arise as a steady procession of former Meta employees have come forward to criticize the company for not doing enough to protect children from harm on its social media products.Lawmakers have also repeatedly grilled Meta executives for pushing content to youth that promotes bullying, drug abuse and self-harm.
At one congressional hearing in January 2024, Republican senator Josh Hawley prodded Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s chief executive, into publicly apologizing,“I’m sorry for everything you have all been through,” Zuckerberg said at the time,“No one should go through the things that your families have suffered, and this is why we invest so much and we are going to continue doing industry-wide efforts to make sure no one has to go through the things your families have had to suffer,”Sign up to TechScapeA weekly dive in to how technology is shaping our livesafter newsletter promotionMarsha Blackburn, a Republican senator from Tennessee, said the revelations about Meta’s VR products show Congress needs to pass legislation putting guardrails on social media companies,“Instead of heeding serious concerns about widespread child harm on their platforms, Meta silenced employees who dared to come forward, buried egregious evidence, and shamelessly used innocent kids as pawns to line their pockets,” Blackburn said.
“These whistleblowers should be commended for having the courage to expose Meta’s disgusting web of lies.”The six whistleblowers are represented by the legal non-profit Whistleblower Aid.They are scheduled to testify before the subcommittee on Tuesday.The current and former Meta employees have also filed a detailed disclosure to Congress, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Trade Commission.
Barclays boss urges UK ministers to limit public sector pay rises
The chief executive of Barclays has said the UK government needs to limit pay rises for public sector workers and resist a further “squeeze” on banks with tax increases.CS Venkatakrishnan said the government needed to look at its own spending levels as the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, seeks ways to address a fiscal hole when she announces her budget in November.“We need to curb expenditure at the government level,” he told the Financial Times. “We need to find a way to curb wage inflation.”Venkatakrishnan said that while the government needed to restrict rising “public sector” wages, the inflationary impact of pay rises was an issue across the UK economy
UK economy flatlines in July in grim news for Rachel Reeves
The UK economy flatlined in July, according to official figures, in grim news for Rachel Reeves as she gears up for a challenging budget.It was a slowdown compared with June, when the economy grew by 0.4%, according to the Office for National Statistics.GDP expanded strongly in the first half of the year, making the UK the fastest-growing economy in the G7, but it had been widely expected to slow in the second half.The ONS said that growth in the services and construction sectors in July was offset by a 0
Larry Ellison briefly overtakes Elon Musk as world’s richest person
US tech billionaire Larry Ellison is neck-and-neck with Elon Musk in the contest to be the world’s richest person after briefly overtaking the Tesla chief executive on WednesdayEllison’s wealth surged after Oracle, the business software company in which he owns a stake of 41%, reported better than expected financial results.Oracle shares rose by more than 40% in early trading, at one point valuing the business software company at approximately $960bn (£707bn) and Ellison’s stake at $393bn, just ahead of Musk’s fortune of $384bn, according to Bloomberg’s billionaires index. However, Ellison’s lead was short-lived as the stock closed at $328, a rise of 36% valuing Ellison’s shareholding at $378bn and putting Musk back ahead.The pair sit comfortably ahead of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos.Ellison, 81, also has other sources of wealth, including a stake in electric carmaker Tesla, where Musk is chief executive, a sailing team, the Indian Wells Open tennis tournament, and an island in Hawaii, according to Bloomberg
Snapchat allows drug dealers to operate openly on platform, finds Danish study
Snapchat has been accused by a Danish research organisation of leaving an “overwhelming number” of drug dealers to openly operate on Snapchat, making it easy for children to buy substances including cocaine, opioids and MDMA.The social media platform has said it proactively uses technology to filter out profiles selling drugs. However, research by Digitalt Ansvar (Digital Accountability), a Danish research organisation that promotes responsible digital development, has found evidence of a failure to moderate drug-related language in usernames. It also accused Snapchat of failing to respond adequately to reports of profiles openly selling drugs.Researchers used profiles of 13-year-olds and found a multitude of people selling drugs on Snapchat under usernames featuring keywords such as “coke”, “weed” and “molly”
Leigh sweep sorry St Helens aside to confirm home playoff slot
These two great rugby league clubs may both be preparing for the Super League playoffs in a fortnight’s time but on the evidence of what we have seen both here and in recent weeks, you suspect only one has a credible chance of walking out at Old Trafford in a month’s time.And incredibly, it is not the side who were world champions just two years ago and won four consecutive league titles at the turn of the decade. For all of the brilliance St Helens showed in that run of unprecedented domination, this is now a very different side: underlined by the fact that for the first time in the summer era, they will finish outside the top four in consecutive seasons.But this night belonged to a side who are hoping of ending a much longer wait to become champions of England. Not since 1982 were Leigh last the dominant force in rugby league, and their only other title came all the way back in 1906
Canelo Álvarez and Terence Crawford hit 167½lb ahead of Las Vegas megafight
Saúl “Canelo” Álvarez and Terence Crawford each weighed in at 167½lb behind closed doors on Friday morning, clearing the final hurdle before their historic showdown at Allegiant Stadium.The weigh-in result confirmed what many had been waiting to see: Crawford, unbeaten in 41 professional fights, tipping the scale at a career-high mark as he climbs two weight classes into the super-middleweight division for the first time. Until last year he’d never fought above 147lb and in his most recent outing last August he weighed 153.4lb in edging Israil Madrimov. Now, after months of adding bulk, he stands one night away from challenging for all four of Álvarez’s belts at 168lb
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