Jacob Ward
@byjacobward · Oakland, CA · joined 23 Jul 2008
CNN contributor. Investigative journalist covering AI, surveillance & power. Author of The Loop. Founder of The Rip Current. Subscribe now!
16 745Followers
1 564Following
15 580Posts total
11.7KViews on collected posts
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Both sides have now made their opening pitch to an eight-person jury that's advisory only — Judge Gonzalez Rogers rules. Neither side has presented actual evidence yet. Seven weeks to go.
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Whatever the jury thinks about who these platforms are "intended" for, he says the evidence will show the majority of users on both platforms are adults.
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Schmidt's framing of the states' actual burden: they have to prove Instagram and Facebook were marketed to kids under 13, or that Meta knew it had underage kids on the platforms and didn't do enough.
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Worth remembering here, for anyone shocked at the idea that Meta isn’t required to do any of those things: we haven’t had a definitive Federal online privacy or online safety law in this country.
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On age: Schmidt listed three things Meta did that the law didn't require. No requirement to ask users' age — Meta asked anyway. No requirement to investigate age — Meta did it anyway. No requirement that users provide age at signup — Meta required it anyway.
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His point to the jury: reasonable or not, it was reviewed for 10 months, not waved through.
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Schmidt's framing: Meta weighed real concerns on both sides — well-being, and people's ability to express themselves. Result: they banned filters that explicitly pushed cosmetic surgery, not the category entirely.
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Meta banned them to study the question, per Schmidt — a 10-month review, which he says is a far cry from how other companies would handle it. Findings: data on product impact was "negative," but research into well-being impact was "too new and not well-understood."
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On the filters story from this morning: Schmidt says it's more complicated. The filters were third-party products, posted to Instagram by outside developers — not something Meta built.
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That’s Schmidt’s theme (and the crux of how he’s defended pharma clients and Meta in the past) — that scientific consensus hasn’t been reached, and thus claims of harm are impossible to lay at his clients’ feet definitively.
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He cited testimony from New Jersey's Department of Health leader, for instance, who reviewed the reports and was asked whether a causal relationship between social media and youth mental health harm has been established — and said no, she didn't believe it had been.
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On causation: Schmidt says Meta asked public health experts and officials directly.
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Schmidt gave a broad note of caution to the jury: "Wait until you hear all the evidence." His framing: what they heard this morning was one side's opening, not proof of anything yet.
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Meta's opening statement is underway in Oakland — attorney Paul Schmidt is presenting the company's defense to the same jury that heard the state's case this morning. This thread covers only his argument (and I missed chunks of it for a CNN TV hit). Here's what he told them: 🧵
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Schmidt ran this same role in the LA K.G.M. trial in February: questioned whether "social media addiction" is a valid diagnosis, cited the plaintiff's own mental health history, and played a provider's deposition saying social media wasn't "the through-line." Same approach today.
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Worth knowing who's talking: Paul Schmidt isn't a Meta or tech specialist. He's a mass-tort defense lawyer — wins defending McKesson in the opioid trials, Boehringer in Pradaxa, Eli Lilly in Cymbalta. Same playbook, new industry.
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I'm in the Oakland courtroom for opening statements — CA Deputy AG Megan O'Neill is walking the jury through Meta's internal numbers. This is the state's opening argument, not a verdict. (And we haven’t heard from Meta’s attorneys yet.) Here's what they say the evidence shows. 🧵
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A trillion dollars of US market value gone — because investors in Korea seem to see things more clearly than we do: the AI boom balances on on memory from Korea, chips from one Taiwanese company, and rare earths from China. Fragile times.
https://t.co/49PSg9YxYV
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At Davos, AI isn’t winning debates — it’s winning cocktail hours. When Big Tech throws the best parties, global policy starts following the guest list. This is how power actually moves now. #Davos #WorldEconomicForum #AI #BigTech #ripcurrent Full episodes at . https://t.co/gPJ1JC
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4:07
@byjacobward If we're not responsible for our own behavior because it can be manipulated why is this legal argument only being focused on social media? Why doesn't it apply to every aspect of society from entertainment, to food choices, to politics, to education & relationships?
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@byjacobward Wanted to write in and thank you for the book the loop I just finished reading was heartening to connect to and understand the risks and remedies of AI so well researched and articulated. 🙏🏻
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I'm launching a tech-literate, historically informed, fuck-it-let's-go Substack today, and I'm calling it The Rip Current. Here's the first post! Please subscribe, and check out https://t.co/kU7Nx6vTNF to see the ethical standards I'll be observing in this new phase of life. http
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Against accounts of the same size
18 posts from the last 90 days, next to the 10K–100K follower range. reaches fewer people than peers, but engages them much harder.
Median views42this account922median for 10K–100K
Reach, %0.25%this account3.39%median for 10K–100K
Engagement, %2.38%this account1.53%median for 10K–100K
| Metric | This account | Median for 10K–100K | Ratio |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median views per post | 42 | 922 | 0.05× |
| Reach (views ÷ followers) | 0.25% | 3.39% | 0.07× |
| Engagement rate | 2.38% | 1.53% | 1.55× |
Others in this range → Compare with another account → How these benchmarks are built →
Growth & engagement
How the posts we collected actually performed: views and reaction rate post by post, what the audience did with them, and where the follower count goes.
Views per post
98318 Aug
41
39
38
42
42
48
42
34
40
42
40
132
141
Last 14 collected posts, oldest on the left. The scale is logarithmic: one post can outrun the rest a hundred times over.
Engagement rate per post
0.31%18 Aug
2.44%
2.56%
2.63%
2.38%
2.38%
2.08%
2.38%
2.94%
2.50%
2.38%
2.50%
0.76%
0.00%
Reactions — likes, reposts, replies and quotes — divided by views. Median for 10K–100K accounts is 1.53%.
What the audience does
Likes54.4%37 in total
Reposts5.9%4 in total
Replies29.4%20 in total
Bookmarks10.3%7 in total
Share of every reaction we collected for this account. Replies mean argument, reposts mean endorsement, bookmarks mean the post was worth keeping.
The follower curve appears once this account has two daily snapshots — we take one a day, and this one is on its first.
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