Re: [OT] School boards launch multibillion dollar lawsuits against social media companies

On Thu, 28 Mar 2024 11:28:25 -0700
BTR1701 <atropos@mac.com> wrote:

In article <20240328131230.00003892@example.com>,
 Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:
 

School boards in Toronto, Peel Region (the Toronto suburbs just
west of Toronto) and Ottawa have launched lawsuits claiming over $4
billion in damages from operators of Instagram, Snapchat, Tiktok
and others.
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNNlplE19lY [12 minutes]
 
The school boards are making use of lawyers that are operating on a
contingency basis so the lawyers only get part of the settlement if
they are successful and no tax money is being spent on the lawyers.
This implies that the lawyers are highly confident that they are
going to win. I find that surprising given the vagueness of the
claims made by the board and the difficulty of proving the damage
done by social media in court.
 
After all, I think there is a general sense that kids are spending
too much time on social media but how do you prove that actual harm
is being done, that the harm is exclusively caused by the social
media, and then how do you quantify the harm in dollar terms? 

 
And that even if there is quantifiable harm, how it's harm to the
school district rather than the individual kids. I mean, if
Instragram, et al have liability here, wouldn't it be the kids who
deserve the money rather than some school board bureaucrats?
 

I'm sure they'll never admit but I'll bet the teachers are getting
frustrated with kids that are looking at content that challenges the
"progressive" narrative who then speak up in class and cause the rest
of the kids to see that so much of what the teacher are saying is
hokum. It only takes a handful of kids that are thinking for themselves
to disrupt the whole indoctrination process so even if the vast
majority of the kids are looking at mindless dancing videos, the few
that are seeing thought-provoking content undermine the teachers'
efforts by themselves. Given that discipline is almost completely
missing from schools now, I don't see how the teachers can really hope
to shut down the students that are challenging what the teachers are
saying.

At least I HOPE that is what is happening. Then again, perhaps the kids
have been so dumbed-down that none of them are seeing anything that
contradicts "The Narrative".

If I was a lawyer for the social media companies, I think I'd have a
field day defending them in the legal process. One of the first
questions I'd have would be about the school boards' own rules
around the use of social media in schools. Are kids allowed to use
social media while at school? If so, why? Given the harm it is
alleged to be causing, why would the schools allow kids to access
social media while they are on school property? 

 
Yep. Even if the schools' argument is taken as true, they'd seem to
be guilty of contributory negligence. If these lawsuits are
successful, as a parent, I'd turn around and sue the school, using
their own arguments and precedent against them, and demand money for
harming my kid.

Excellent reasoning! I'd love to see the parents do exactly that!

--
Rhino