The design choices that encourage scrolling and spending are the focus of a Dutch lawmaker's effort to regulate apps.
Pro MP Barbara Kathmann has proposed a bill targeting manipulative design rather than banning the platforms themselves.
Here's what to know
The proposal would cover social media platforms, games, dating apps, and chatbots, according to DutchNews. The bill would place manipulative online design in a category Dutch consumer law already prohibits: "unfair commercial practices."
Under Kathmann's proposal, how a digital service operates could become a consumer-law issue. Kathmann told broadcaster NOS that the existing protections are geared toward physical goods, leaving the design of digital services outside that focus.
The report identifies infinite scrolling as one example, though it does not provide a full list of designs the legislation would prohibit.
More background
For Kathmann, the concern goes beyond the time people spend online to the money they spend while using these services.
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She said the products contain tricks "that make us addicted and tempt us into spending money, so that a handful of tech billionaires earn a fortune," according to DutchNews.
Online platforms have become "the new high street or marketplace," she told NOS.
The report does not outline penalties or enforcement arrangements.
What's being done?
A Dutch law could push Brussels to act, Kathmann hopes. Although she favors an EU-wide response, she said waiting for that process would take too long, according to DutchNews.
The effort also extends beyond the Netherlands: Lawmakers in Germany, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Austria, Italy, and Portugal are working with her toward comparable legislation.
An appeal in March left intact an order requiring Meta to give Dutch Facebook and Instagram users the option to set a chronological, rather than algorithmic, feed as their default. Digital rights organization Bits of Freedom brought the case that led to the order.
"If a doll is unsafe, we take it off the market," Kathmann told NOS. "If social media platforms are unsafe, they have to go back to the drawing board and be adapted."
Where can I learn more?
These stories cover ways concerns about addictive app design and spending incentives have prompted action in the United States, too.
• California enacted 13 child safety tech laws, targeting addictive social media and artificial intelligence.
• North Carolina is fighting to sue ByteDance over claims TikTok's design addicts children.
• Former DraftKings staff say AI targeted free bets to gamblers most likely to keep losing.
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