GME3: X Takes An L, BC Bill Sue-percharges Health Costs, & U.S. Surgeon Generalizes

Happy first day of spring to everyone! This week’s GME3 features a trio of social media-related stories. Italy’s Media and Communications Authority has levied a heavy fine against X for violating their laws around gambling advertisements, the Attorney General of BC has introduced a new bill aimed at allowing the provincial government to pursue social media platforms for health-related damages, and the U.S. Surgeon General has released an official statement calling for greater regulations on social media. Read the full stories below!

Gambling

X Takes An L

The Media and Communications Authority of Italy, also known as AGCOM, has levied a  €1.35 million (just under CAD $2 million) fine on the social media platform X for promoting gambling advertisements to Italian users.

According to their report, AGCOM has found nine different instances of illegal gambling ads on X, all coming from verified, blue-check users of the platform. While X took immediate action upon learning of the infringing ads, AGCOM is determined to enforce its ruling.

The fine was made possible under the “Dignity Decree,” a piece of 2019 legislation that ordered all media platforms to impose a ban on all forms of gambling advertising, communications, and content within Italy. The Decree intended to grant Italy the toughest restrictions on gambling advertising in the entirety of Europe.

X is only the latest social media platform to run afoul of the Italian Communications Authority. Only a few weeks ago AGCOM sanctioned Meta even more harshly – to the tune of €5.58 million – for similar infringements of the Decree. In December 2023, AGCOM fined Google €2.5 million for the lack of supervision surrounding gambling content on YouTube.

While AGCOM seems determined to play hardball with these tech giants, others in Italy seem to be dissatisfied with their approach. Italian media owners have been critical of AGCOM’s (arguably) heavyhanded approach, as they have also been handed some harsh financial penalties due to gambling advertising on their platforms. 

Furthermore, the Italian government has begun deliberation over their “Reorganisation Decrees” that govern Italy’s gambling market. This marks the first time that Italian gambling laws have been reviewed since they were introduced in 2011. While there is currently no mandate to alter the Dignity Decree or related rules, some are calling for the government to relax their rules around gambling ads to limit user exposure to the, still highly profitable, black gambling market.

Media

BC Bill Sue-percharges Health Costs

British Columbia’s Attorney General Niki Sharma introduced a new bill last week that aims to allow people to recover health-related costs from alleged “wrongdoers”. 

If the bill passes, the province will be allowed to use the judicial system to recover health-related costs that stem from the promotion and distribution of products that are considered “harmful.” This would extend to social media companies, meaning that the government could pursue these platforms for the harm their platforms contribute to or even cause, especially to young people.

The bill has been modelled after previously passed legislation that similarly allowed the government to seek recovery of health-related tobacco and opioid damage costs.

Sharma perfectly summarized the intent of the bill: “Once this new legislation passes, we will be able to sue more wrongdoers, as we’ve done successfully with tobacco and opioid companies, and keep more people in B.C. healthy and safe.”

It seems that the recent wave of action against social media platforms is making its way to Canada. We’ve spent a lot of time recently covering the suits against Meta and X that are ongoing in the U.S., but now it appears that the efforts to hold platforms accountable for their actions (or lack thereof) have crossed the 49th parallel. 

Entertainment

U.S. Surgeon Generalizes

Dr. Vivek Murthy, the U.S. Surgeon General, has released an official statement urging governments at the state and federal levels to enact greater regulations on social media.

This is in part due to anecdotal evidence that Dr. Murthy gathered as he visited universities across the country and, partially due to a shocking statistic released as part of a study earlier this week that found that, for the first time since the data began to be collected in 2012, 15 to 24-year-olds in North America say they are less happy than older generations. This is not limited to the United States. Other studies have shown youth wellbeing on the decline in countries like the U.K., Japan, South Korea, and India.

Murthy points to social media as a major contributing factor to this phenomenon. Last year he even issued a warning that social media use poses “a profound risk of harm” to the mental health and wellbeing of youth. He compares the companies that operate these platforms to 20th-century car manufacturers who produced vehicles without seatbelts and airbags (at least until legislation mandated it). These platforms have no real “safety features” for young users to fall back on and with the lack of supervision and accountability

in online spaces, it’s easy to understand why someone would be concerned.

Murthy also claims that, between 2000 and 2020, the amount of in-person time young people in the US spent with their friends has decreased by a staggering 70%. Meanwhile, the average American teenager spends over 4.8 hours on social media every day. Dr. Murthy argues that this growing isolation is beginning to have physical effects on the population, including: “a 29% increase in the risk of heart disease, a 32% increase in the risk of stroke and a 50% increase in the risk of dementia among older individuals.”

Considering the amount of coverage we’ve dedicated to legal challenges directed at social media platforms this year so far, Dr. Murthy almost seems late to the party. Several states have bills in the works that aim to increase the level of oversight that social media platforms are subject to, especially when it comes to younger users. While we may not see all of these cases resolved this year, 2024 will no doubt result in some changed to the legal landscape of social media.