Meta Intentionally Deploys Features To Keep Young Users Glued to Their Phones

3. Meta designs and deploys features to capture young users’ attention and prolong their time on its Social Media Platforms.

86. Acquiring young users helps secure Meta’s profit stream over time. By capturing users’ attention and engagement when they are young, Meta ensures future engagement and monetization as those young users grow up.

87. Meta thus develops and implements features to attract young users and keep them engaged on its Social Media Platforms for as long as possible. These features include: engagement-based (as opposed to chronological) feeds; infinite scroll; push notifications; ephemeral content; and video-based content.

88. Meta had originally displayed content on a user’s “Feed” chronologically, i.e., in the order the content was posted by people the user elected to follow. Meta moved from chronological Feeds to engagement-based Feeds in 2009 (for Facebook) and 2016 (for Instagram).

89. The engagement-based Feed is different and alters the users’ experience. It algorithmically presents material to users based on several engagement components: posts with more “Likes,” comments, and other indicia of user engagement are displayed to users first.

90. This change was designed to prioritize material most likely to engage users for longer periods of time.

91. In the fall of 2016, Instagram debuted its infinite scroll system.

92. Infinite scroll is characterized by the partial display of additional content at the bottom of the user’s screen, such that the user is typically unable to look at a single post in isolation (without seeing the top portion of the next post in their Feed).

93. The “teasing” of yet-to-be-viewed content continues indefinitely; as the user scrolls down the Feed, new content is automatically loaded and “teased.”

94. This “teasing” feature is intended to keep young users of the Platform engaged and continuing to scroll to the new content.

95. In April 2015, Meta introduced a variety of “push notifications” to Instagram. Push notifications are auditory and visual cues to alert users when accounts they follow add new content.

96. Push notifications allowed Instagram to draw its users back to the Platform at any time of day. [Redacted]

97. Meta also sought to increase engagement through making certain content available to users only temporarily—with notifications and visual design cues indicating that the content would soon disappear forever (ephemeral content).

98. Ephemeral content leads young users to more frequently open Meta’s Social Media Platforms so they do not “miss out” on any new content. This phenomenon is called “Fear of Missing Out,” or “FOMO.” Meta designed ephemeral content features in its Social Media Platforms to induce this sense of FOMO in young users.

99. For example, on August 2, 2016, Meta introduced a feature to Instagram designed to show images and narratives for only a short amount of time before disappearing, known as the “Stories” feature. Meta released a similar feature to Facebook in 2017.

100-101. [Redacted]

102. Another example is “Live,” which gives users the ability to livestream videos to followers or the public.

103. Meta launched Facebook Live on a limited basis to celebrities and other highprofile users in August 2015, with the feature being available to all users by April 2016. Instagram soon followed in November 2016.

104. Live allows users to create video content in real time that their followers can watch and react to, often called “going Live.”

105. When an account goes Live, the Instagram Platform sends out a notification.

106. [Redacted]

107. In addition to video-streaming offered through the Live feature, Meta has also designed and implemented several video features, including “IGTV,” “Instagram Video,” and ultimately “Reels.”[7] As with prior features, Meta focused on teen engagement with these video features.

108. [Redacted]

109. In 2020, when Meta introduced its short-form video feature, “Reels,” to the U.S. market on Instagram, [Redacted] Reels were made available on Facebook in September 2021.

110. Reels are algorithmically presented to users based on a number of factors, including the user’s activity, the popularity of the content, and the viewer’s connection to the creator.

111. Reels display metrics such as Like counts, comments, and views in the video itself, which reduces the need for the user to navigate away from the video.

112-116. [Redacted]

[7] IGTV was revamped in October 2021 (in a shift to Instagram Video), and ultimately removed completely from the Platform in March 2022. Reels was merged with and superseded “Instagram Video” in June 2022.