Meta and Alphabet shares fall following social media trial defeat

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Big tech on trial could a landmark judgment reshape the social media feed.

If that level of punishment was leveraged across the world,

then almost at the end of these companies.

It's world business expressed from the BBC World Service.

I'm Sarah Rogers.

The boss of Canada's national airline is under pressure to quit.

And we'll also hear from transport workers striking in the Philippines

over fuel costs.

But first.

Yes, familiar sounds to many, the ping off Facebook and Instagram

notifications are calling to open a social media app.

Maybe check a message. Maybe view a meme.

But how long do you stay on their scrolling?

Well, in the US, a landmark case ruled that YouTube owner Google and

Instagram owner met her intentionally built addictive platforms.

The case was brought by a 20 year old woman known as Kaley who said

it damaged her mental health.

Her lawyer, Mark Lagne, called the ruling a righteous moment.

We've sent a message with this that you will be held accountable for the

features that drive addiction.

That's a huge message for these companies.

Well, Kaley has been awarded six million dollars.

Metter and Google say they will appeal.

But the ruling paves the way for a number of other cases.

Bruce daisley is the former vice president of Twitter in Europe,

the Middle East in Africa from 2012 to 2020.

He told me how much financial damage this could cause.

If that level of punishment was leveraged across the world,

then almost certainly it would be the end of these companies.

What effectively you've got with these firms is a lot of their value is

based on them growing disproportionately large.

It's about them growing faster than the rest of the stock market every

year. And to do that, if you're trying to deliver 15% revenue growth

every year, 20% revenue growth every year, each successive year,

you sit there thinking what we did last year wasn't enough.

When it becomes played out over the 20 year history of these products,

then effectively you've got a business which is just engineered.

It's just geared for trying to force people to spend more and more time.

People who use who are TikTok users, for example,

use it about 90 minutes every day, Instagram users use it for over an hour

every day. And effectively the businesses are constantly trying to work out.

Could we get another five minutes?

And how much is that worth to these companies in extra five minutes and

extra eyeballs for another six minutes? How much is that worth?

Probably every user's worth $10, $20, $30 for them,

maybe $100 in the $200 in the course of a year.

So they do make a lot of money from the people who use their product.

And of course when you scale that to the fact that Facebook and Instagram

have and what's what's up doesn't make as much money from advertising.

These platforms have got three billion users worldwide.

It proves to be a sort of hugely lucrative market for them.

And was that your experience when you were at Twitter now X,

finding ways to keep people on the platform to make revenue?

It was very early stage and I think you know the thing that really differentiated Twitter

was that we didn't really have this capability.

You know the average Twitter user when I was there spent about eight minutes a day on it.

There wasn't even an algorithm since Elon Musk has bought it in these far more algorithmically led.

So you'll turn up now even if you don't follow any accounts.

You'll get a full timeline.

Me met her in Google's disagreed obviously with the verdict and said that mental health

is complex and can't just be linked to a single app.

We can just put our phones down, can't we?

We can, but most of us would describe our relationship with these apps on our phone as being slightly addictive.

We find ourselves thinking I'll just have one last look before I go to bed.

Sure enough, 30 minutes later we're still there.

So I think what this court case shows is that isn't an accident.

It's not something wrong with us.

It's the fact that these businesses employ hundreds of psychologists.

They employ data scientists who try to understand what was the thing that sent you away.

Really interesting that from former Twitter executive Bruce Dazley.

Now it comes the same week during New Mexico found meta liable for misleading users over the safety of its platforms for children.

I've got Emma Wall chief investment strategist at Hargreaves lands down with me.

What are investors making of all this? What's it meant for share prices?

It's not positive.

Alphabet the Google owner is down 1.17% but meta because of those backed back losses.

And because actually they've announced this week they'll be laying off around 700 jobs and restructuring.

It's share prices down nearly 6%.

And really what the market is saying here is if this court case is the beginning of many and applied globally.

These will be significant very damaging losses to the businesses.

Thank you. I'm a do stay with us.

We're going to head to the Philippines now, though, where transport workers are on strike over the price of fuel driven by surging oil prices as the war in the Middle East continues.

The government which declared an energy state of emergency this week has introduced fuel subsidies and free bus rides for affected commuters.

But protesters say the measures are not enough.

BBC Surinjana Tawari reports from the capital Manila.

Demonstrators have been on the streets in central Manila since 7 a.m. this morning.

Part of a wider, well-gun or strike.

Transport workers say they're no longer earning enough to survive with diesel prices now more than double pre-war levels.

In multiple pockets of the capital, jeepney and minibus drivers have been gathering along main roads, staging loud protests against the government's response.

They say government subsidies are too small and often delayed.

More than 120 pesos to 140 pesos per liter of the crude oil in the market right now here in the Philippines.

So that's why we are appealing to our president to reduce and impose price ceiling price cap to control the oil industry companies here in the Philippines.

Rising food and utility costs are adding to the street.

Protesters are calling for fuel tax cuts, tighter regulation of oil prices and higher fares.

That was Surinjana Tawari in Manila.

The boss of Canada's national airline is under pressure to quits after releasing a condolence message for the recent deaths of two pilots in English only.

One of the pilots killed in Sunday's collision at La Guadilla Airport was from French speaking Quebec.

Prime Minister Mark Carney has said his response showed a lack of compassion.

Canada, he says, was a bilingual country and companies like air Canada had a responsibility to communicate in both official languages.

Now, let's come back to Emma Wall chief investment strategist who's with us today at Hargreese Lansdown.

We have been keeping an eye on those oil prices daily as it bounces around as the US Israel warring around continues.

Rising again today, though, Emma.

Yeah, and then a week that began actually with Brent crude below $100 a barrel for the first time in weeks started quite positively both in terms of lower oil prices and higher equity prices because of that positive narrative.

Now today is taking kind of turn of the worst.

So we've gone from over the last couple of days having language around a ceasefire around a peace deal around a compromise between the nations to today actually rhetoric has escalated.

And so therefore we have seen oil prices do the same and in reaction equity markets across the world have fallen and it could all change again tomorrow.

Of course, and Emma just want to get in loads of rumours that Elon Musk's space X which makes and launches rockets will go public mounting.

It's much anticipated IPO in the next few days expected to be the biggest stock market debut in history.

Yeah, so it was very much expected this year June was muted as a potential date because of the planetary alignment and Elon Musk has been known to use astrology to make these very large business decisions, but it looks like we're going to get it potentially much sooner than that.

Which could make him a trillionaire for those reports that I read or correct Emma thank you very much that's it from world business express please do subscribe to get the latest just search for world business express.