습관을 애정한다

CSR and lawsuit accusing Instagram

by 습관중독

According to this article, "but CSR takes things a bit further to behave in ways that are in line with a certain moral code" means that CSR is about not legal but moral issues such as common good or 'don't be evil'. 

From this point of view, the lawsuit accusing Instagram's algorithms in June 2022 is ridiculous. They allege that Instagram's negative impacts on young teens’ self-image finally made a female teen eating disorder and self-harm. 
Regarding moral point, we can say to Instagram that the algorithm causing a negative impact is not good. It's okay. We can also blame Instagram for its dirty and doubtful algorithm. It's okay, too.

However, when it comes to the legal views, it is a totally different story. In court, accusers should say that Instagram's algorithm causes their daughter's eating disorder and self-harm. Therefore, the Instagram algorithm is illegal against torts and should be fined a huge amount of money. I have no idea about the U.S. law system so I can't predict this lawsuit's conclusion.

In the Korean law system, this kind of lawsuit will be a joke for two following reasons. First, there is no causation directly between Instagram's algorithms and eating disorders and self-harm. A certain relation between activity and result, that is to say, the issue of causation in Criminal Law is vitally important. To be specific, the coder of Instagram's algorithms itself doesn't cause eating disorders and self-harm directly. It is a dim, ambiguous, and weak connection.

Second, Instagram has no intention to cause eating disorders and self-harm. For example, to be a murderer needs mainly four factors: murder(activity), death(result), intention, and causation. In this case, Instagram naturally wasn't willing to lead to eating disorders and self-harm. If this kind of assertion is accepted, all crime victims regarding Instagram will charge Meta platforms.

For these reasons, I think the lawsuit is unreasonable. Following the logic in the lawsuit, advertisement, sales and marketing can be mood-manipulation and illegal too. We can see the result in near future. 

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