Social media bosses not serious about safety, says MP

Tech bosses have not been “serious” about social media safety, an MP who formerly worked on Meta’s AI ethics team has said.

In an interview with the BBC, former minister Josh Simons said a recent court decision finding Meta and Google liable for a woman’s childhood social media addiction should “terrify” tech chiefs.

The jury in the US recommended the 20-year-old plaintiff be awarded six million dollars (£4.4 million) in damages. Both Meta and Google disagreed with the verdict and confirmed they were planning to appeal.

Simons, who spent three years working for Meta and testified in the case, told the BBC’s Newscast podcast he had quit the company because his team’s recommendations were not being followed.

He said: “Every time a decision was made, it seemed like the opposite of what they would need to do to think about these harms and these addictive harms.

“And the only real conclusion that I could come to, and I think many others did in the team too, is they weren’t serious.

“They didn’t want to take responsibility for it because in the end that engagement, that revenue was more important than the things that you’d need to take responsibility for those harms.”

Asked whether the decision in the US would be “terrifying” for social media executives, Simons said: “I hope so.”

He added: “I think it was so obvious to me that when you build a set of AI systems to maximize things like clicks and likes and shares and angry faces and things like that, what you’re doing is designing AI to addict people.”

Wednesday’s potentially precedent-setting decision saw a jury find that Google, owner of Youtube, and Meta, which operates Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, built platforms to hook young users without regard for their wellbeing.

The lawsuit, brought after a young woman argued a childhood addiction to social media had exacerbated her mental health issues, could influence the outcomes of thousands of similar cases which accuse social media firms of causing harm.

It came as governments around the world weigh up whether to ban social media for young people.

In the UK, ministers are currently consulting on a social media ban for under-16s, as well as piloting other restrictions on young people’s tech use.

Sir Keir Starmer has suggested Wednesday’s ruling points to a shift in public opinion and an appetite for tougher regulation, saying the Government will study the decision “very carefully”.

Simons told Newscast he would support a ban on social media for under-16s, and a ban on mobile phones in schools.

But he added that politicians should not be let “off the hook” for improving regulation of social media.

Simons said he was ‘naive’

Simons’ interview comes a month after he resigned as a Cabinet Office minister over an investigation commissioned by a think tank he used to lead into journalists that had written stories about its funding.

Although he was cleared of breaching the ministerial code by an official investigation, Simons quit the government at the end of February, saying he had become a “distraction”.

In his interview, he apologised again for commissioning the report from PR firm Apco Worldwide while he was director of Labour Together – a think tank closely aligned with Sir Keir’s leadership campaign.

He told the podcast he had been “naïve” and insisted he had “never wanted any journalist, any reporters to be investigated”.

Simons added: “But it’s still the case that I gave the impression that that’s what I’d intended, even though it wasn’t.

“And actually, I think it was right for me to take responsibility for that, to say, look, I’m so sorry this happened.”

Meta has been contacted for comment.