Tag: social media

TikTok, Tobacco, and Addiction, Oh My!

The Petrie-Flom Center Staff Leave a comment

by Jessica Samuels

On October 8, 13 states and the District of Columbia sued TikTok, alleging that the social media company’s algorithm is designed to “promote excessive, compulsive, and addictive use” in children. While each state’s complaint was filed separately in state court, the cases are coordinated around the claim that TikTok’s design is deliberately addictive, exploiting kids’  dopamine reward circuitry to reinforce their use of the platform

These claims stem from a public reckoning of the effects of social media on children. New research has also led the surgeon general to announce a mental health crisis among young people. The lawsuits, arising from the desire to hold platforms accountable for exploiting children’s susceptibility to rewarding stimuli during development, present a novel theory of liability based solely on an algorithm’s ability to cause addiction rather than adverse mental health outcomes. Holding TikTok liable could lead to major changes in social media algorithms, reducing mental health harm.

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Addictive Design and Social Media: Legal Opinions and Research Roundup

The Petrie-Flom Center Staff Leave a comment

by Matthew B. Lawrence and Avraham R. Sholkoff

This has been a busy year in research and regulation addressing addictive design by social media platforms, marked by advisories or initiatives from the Surgeon General, American Psychiatric Association, and American Academy of Pediatrics that spotlight public health issues related to social media. With many foundational questions still unanswered, scholars across legal academic disciplines — public health, technology, tort, First Amendment, and beyond — are increasingly turning toward these issues.

For those looking to get up to speed, this post shares major recent judicial rulings along with recent legal research.  If we were writing a syllabus for a course on “the law of addictive design,” the cases and articles listed below would be high on the list for inclusion.

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Free Speech versus Public Health: The Role of Social Media (Part Two)

The Petrie-Flom Center Staff Leave a comment

by Claudia E. Haupt

In addition to the conflict between free speech and public health in connection with social media, the role of social media as a public health hazard in itself has gained attention.

Social Media’s Public Health Harms

In a New York Times essay published on June 17, 2024, the Surgeon General proposed a warning label for social media platforms. He based this proposal on a range of alleged public health harms caused by social media, especially among young users. Other health experts, however, have criticized broad assertions about social media’s harms as oversimplified.

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Free Speech versus Public Health: The Role of Social Media (Part One)

The Petrie-Flom Center Staff Leave a comment

by Claudia E. Haupt

Social media is the new public health battleground. Three current examples highlight the building clash between free speech and public health playing out in connection with social media: the rapid spread of health mis- and disinformation on social media; the extent to which public health officials can influence social media’s role in spreading potentially harmful health advice to the public; and, finally, the harmful effect of social media itself and what the government may do about it. A look across these three scenarios vividly illustrates the theoretical and doctrinal weakness of current First Amendment jurisprudence, its ill fit with online speech, and its potentially detrimental effects on public health.

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Phone with social media icons - instagram, facebook, and twitter.

Regulating Out of the Social Media Health Crisis

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By Bailey Kennedy

If something changes the pathways in our brains and damages our health — and if it does so to Americans on a vast scale — it should be regulated as a threat to public health.

It’s time for our regulators to acknowledge that social media fits this description.

Social media poses an active health threat to many of its users, in a way that is akin to other regulated substances: it has been tied to a variety of harmful health outcomes, including depression. It has also become increasingly clear that social media can be addictive.

Even if it is a behavioral rather than a substantive addiction, with only indirect links to physical health, the high number of Americans who exhibit some degree of social media addiction is concerning.

Inasmuch as social media presents us with a public health crisis, the American government should consider potential regulatory steps to address it.

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Beverly Hills, CA: April 7, 2021: Anti-mask protesters holding signs related to COVID-19. Beverly Hills and the state of California have a mask mandate requirement.

What Makes Social Movements ‘Healthy’?

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By Wendy E. Parmet

Social movements can play an important role in promoting population health and reducing health disparities. Yet, their impact need not be salutatory, as is evident by the worrying success that the anti-vaccination movement has had in stoking fears about COVID-19 vaccines.

So, what makes a health-related social movement “healthy?” We need far more research about the complex dynamics and interactions between social movements and health, but the experience of a few health-related social movements offers some clues.

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Cartoon of contact tracing for COVID-19.

COVID-19, Misinformation, and the Law in Nigeria

The Petrie-Flom Center Staff Leave a comment

By Cheluchi Onyemelukwe

The spread of COVID-19 in Nigeria has been paralleled by the spread of misinformation and disinformation about the novel coronavirus. In Nigeria, information casting doubt on the existence of the coronavirus is spread especially through social media channels, but also through other informal channels.

Some religious leaders with considerable influence have doubted the existence of the virus, and shared conspiracy theories on its origins and the interventions instituted to prevent further spread of the virus. Others have taken to social media to express concerns about the Nigerian government and a perceived lack of transparency. For example, the government has received criticism for continuing its school feeding program during the pandemic, at a time when schools are closed, children are at home, and the country’s financial resources are scarce.

Unproven cures and interventions are also regularly propagated, especially via social media channels such as WhatsApp. For instance, hydroxychloroquine, a drug used for malaria previously, has been touted as a cure, despite evidence to the contrary, prompting some to stockpile it and instigating much discussion on social media.

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Woman surfing.

#MedBikini and Social Media Peer Review

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By Louise P. King

Recently, #MedTwitter was awash with pictures of medical professionals in bikinis as a unique and effective protest to a flawed, and now retracted, journal article.

Those posting objected to the methods used and implicit bias contained in a recently published article in the Journal of Vascular Surgery. The authors replicated the methods and conclusions of a prior 2014 study, which did not garner the same attention at the time.

In both studies, various authors from different branches of surgery created fake accounts on social media and then used Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) lists of residents to scrutinize their public profiles for evidence of “unprofessional” conduct. Each of these studies was presented at a national meeting.

But having men create fake accounts to then secretly monitor residents’ social media profiles for what they personally find objectionable is not scientifically rigorous, and itself represents unprofessional behavior.

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