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Facebook‘s parent company Meta disabled only a small fraction of the over one million reports it received of underage users on Instagram since early 2019, a lawsuit filed by 33 US states reportedly said. The newly unsealed legal complaint accused the tech giant of carrying an “open secret” that it had millions of users under the age of 13, and that Instagram “routinely continued to collect” their personal information such as location without parental permission. The complaint stated that within the company, Meta’s actual knowledge that millions of Instagram users were under the age of 13 was an “open secret” that was routinely documented, rigorously analyzed and confirmed, and zealously protected from disclosure to the public, according to a New York Times report. Last month, attorneys general from 33 states, including New York’s AG Letitia James, filed a lawsuit against Meta alleging that the tech giant designed harmful features contributing to the country’s youth mental health crisis. The lawsuit alleged Meta created addictive and “psychologically manipulative” features targeting young people while assuring the public falsely that the platform was safe to use. “Meta has profited from children’s pain by intentionally designing its platforms with manipulative features that make children addicted to their platforms while lowering their self-esteem,” Ms James said. Meta’s spokesperson responded to the lawsuit, saying that the company was committed to providing teens with “safe, positive experiences online,” and that it had already introduced “over 30 tools to support teens and their families” such as age verification and preventing content promoting harmful behaviours. “We’re disappointed that instead of working productively with companies across the industry to create clear, age-appropriate standards for the many apps teens use, the attorneys general have chosen this path,” the spokesperson added. However, a significant portion of the evidence provided by the states was obscured from public view via redactions in the initial filing. The new unsealed complaint filed last week provided fresh insights from the lawsuit, including the accusation that Instagram “coveted and pursued” underage users for years and that Meta “continually failed” to make effective age-checking systems a priority. The lawsuit reportedly argued that Meta chose not to build effective systems to detect and exclude underage teen users, viewing them as a crucial next generation demographic it needed to capture. It also accused the tech giant of “automatically” ignoring some reports of under 13 users and allowing them to continue using the platform while knowing about such cases via the company’s internal reporting channels. The company responded that the now publicly revealed complaint “mischaracterizes our work using selective quotes and cherry-picked documents.” It said verifying the ages of its users was a “complex” challenge especially with younger people who likely do not have IDs or licenses. Meta recently said it supports federal legislation requiring app stores to get parents’ approval whenever their teens under 16 download apps. “With this solution, when a teen wants to download an app, app stores would be required to notify their parents, much like when parents are notified if their teen attempts to make a purchase,” the company said. “Parents can decide if they want to approve the download. They can also verify the age of their teen when setting up their phone, negating the need for everyone to verify their age multiple times across multiple apps,” it said. The tech giant holds that the best solution to support young people is a “simple, industry-wide solution” where all apps are held to the same standard. “By verifying a teen’s age on the app store, individual apps would not be required to collect potentially sensitive identifying information,” Meta recently said. Read More Russia places Meta spokesperson on wanted list Meta to allow users to delete Threads accounts without losing Instagram Nasa has received a signal from 10 million miles away Nasa has received a signal from 10 million miles away Elon Musk set to meet Netanyahu and hostage families in Israel Elon Musk weighs in on Dublin riots claiming country’s PM ‘hates the Irish people’

A study has found that the psychedelic drug MDMA, combined with talk therapy, can reduce symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder

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On 24 August 2019, Elijah McClain was walking home from a convenience store, listening to music and wearing a ski mask, in Aurora, Colorado when a 911 caller reported him as “looking sketchy” — a call that would lead to the death of the 23-year-old and a social uprising against how race plays a role in policing. Police spotted McClain — who was not armed and had not committed any crime — and put him in a neck hold. Paramedics then arrived at the scene and injected the young man with ketamine. He died three days later. Now, just over four years after the incident, jury selection began on Friday for the trial of two Aurora police officers — Randy Roedema and Jason Rosenblatt — who had interacted with McClain. The trials of a third officer and the two paramedics are also expected to happen later this year. Why is the trial happening now? The first coroner’s report in November 2019 said that the manner of death was “undetermined,” contributing to a local district attorney’s decision against pursuing charges against the officers involved in the incident. In response, Mari Newman, the lawyer representing McClain’s family told Denver7 ABC, “Whatever the report says, it’s clear that if the police had not attacked Elijah McClain, he would be alive today.” But the incident generated significant public backlash. In June 2020, an online petition demanding that the three officers involved be held accountable circulated, garnering nearly 6 million signatures. A GoFundMe page for McClain raised over $2m. Then, in June 2020, Colorado Gov Jared Polis signed an executive order designating a special prosecutor to determine whether “the facts support prosecution, criminally prosecute any individuals whose actions caused the death of Elijah McClain.” The coroner provided an amended version in July 2021, writing that she believed the “tragic fatality is most likely the result of ketamine toxicity.” Shortly thereafter, in September 21, a grand jury indicted three officers and two paramedics involved. A Colorado district judge ordered three separate trials for the five defendants, and now jury selection is underway for the trial of Mr Roedema, a suspended officer, and Mr Rosenblatt, who was fired in the wake of the incident. Who was Elijah McClain? McClain was a 23-year-old massage therapist. He had reportedly earned his GED from Emily Griffith Technical College in Denver and became a massage therapist at 19. Friends and family described him as a gentle person — to humans and animals. He taught himself to play guitar and violin, and would play his violin for cats in a rescue shelter during his lunch breaks, The Cut reported. “I don’t even think he would set a mouse trap if there was a rodent problem,” his friend Eric Behrens told the Sentinel. Another friend — and former client — Marna Arnett called McClain “the sweetest, purest person I have ever met,” she added, “He was definitely a light in a whole lot of darkness.” “He wanted to change the world,” his mother, Sheneen McClain, told the outlet. “And it’s crazy, because he ended up doing it anyway.” Who were the officers and paramedics involved? A grand jury indicted five involved in the incident. Two Aurora Police officers, Randy Roedema and Nathan Woodyard, and one former officer, Jason Rosenblatt, as well as former paramedics Jeremy Cooper and Peter Cichuniec were each indicted on charges of manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide. According to the 32-count indictment, Mr Woodyard placed the 23-year-old in a carotid hold, while Mr Roedema, the senior patrol officer on the scene, placed him in a bar hammer lock; he said he heard McClain’s shoulder pop three times as a result of the movement. Mr Roedema and Mr Rosenblatt were each indicted on one count of assault and one count of crime of violence. Mr Rosenblatt was fired not for his interaction with McClain directly, but for laughing at a photo sent to him from a fellow officer reenacting a neckhold that resembled the one used on McClain. Mr Woodyard was also allegedly sent the photo, but didn’t react to it and deleted it. He stopped McClain for supposedly looking suspicious and is set to go on trial later this year. The paramedics were each indicted on three counts of assault and six counts of crime of violence. Neither Mr Cooper nor Mr Cichuniec took McClain’s vitals, try talking to the 23-year-old, or touch him before diagnosing him with a widely disputed medical condition called “excited delirium,” prompting them to administer ketamine, according to the indictment. They have all pleaded not guilty. In May, a national organisation of coroners became the latest to denounce “excited delirium,” which is often cited as a cause of death by police in instances of violence from officers against community members. The National Association of Medical Examiners (NAME) announced they would cease recognising the condition. What happened to Elijah McClain? Bodycam footage which was released months after the encounter captured the officers interacting with the 23-year-old. An officer approached McClain, who was listening to music, and demanded he stop walking. Eventually, he complied, as an officer apparently said he was stopping McClain for looking suspicious. When the officers tried to grab McClain, he resisted, saying, “I am an introvert. Please respect the boundaries that I am speaking.” The officers repeatedly told McClain to “stop tensing up.” Moments later, McClain was brought to the ground and held in a carotid hold. He can be heard moaning, sobbing, repeating that “it hurts” and pleading with the officers to stop. McClain then tried to turn to his side to vomit, prompting an officer to say: “If you keep messing around, I’m going to bring my dog out here and he’s going to bite you.” The 23-year-old vomited, and apologized. “I wasn’t trying to do that,” he says. “I just can’t breathe correctly.” According to a report from an independent panel, the paramedics “waited almost seven minutes after arriving to interact with Mr. McClain, and their first contact was to administer the sedative ketamine.” He suffered from cardiac arrest on his way to the hospital and died a few days later. The autopsy revealed that he was 5ft 6in tall and weighed just 140 pounds. The coroner’s amended report said, “Simply put, this dosage of ketamine was too much for this individual and it resulted in an overdose … I believe that Mr. McClain would most likely be alive but for the administration of ketamine.” The aftermath McClain’s parents reached a $15m settlement with the city of Aurora. “I hope Elijah’s legacy is that police will think twice before killing another innocent person,” his father, LaWayne Mosley, said after the settlement was announced. “There is nothing that can rectify the loss of Elijah McClain and the suffering his loved ones have endured,” Aurora Police Chief Vanessa Wilson said at the time. “I am committed to learning from this tragedy.” The 23-year-old’s death occurred around the same time as the deaths of Breanna Taylor and George Floyd, who were also Black Americans killed at the hands of police. Together and separately, the deaths propelled protests and sparked demands for police reform. And at least in Colorado, some policies were reformed. In 2020, the state banned police from using neck holds. The Colorado health department prohibited paramedics from implementing ketamine for those supposedly experiencing “excited delirium,” like in the case of McClain. Read More Trial begins in Elijah McClain death, which sparked outrage over racial injustice in policing Elijah McClain cause of death quietly ruled as ketamine as police face charges for violent 2019 arrest Elijah McClain: Colorado city to pay $15m to family in historic police misconduct settlement

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