SOMEWHERE IN META’S servers sat a slide deck(幻灯片组) marked “Confidential”. Written in 2019, its conclusion was blunt(直率的，不客气的): “Teens can’t switch off from Instagram even if they want to.” On March 25th this year, a Los Angeles jury read it into the record(将其纳入记录) and found Meta and YouTube liable(负有法律责任的) for designing addictive products. The world is continuing to digest this landmark ruling(里程碑式裁决) and figure out its implications.
在Meta的服务器某处，存放着一个标有“机密”的幻灯片组。这份写于2019年的材料结论直白：“青少年即使想关掉Instagram也做不到。”今年3月25日，洛杉矶一个陪审团将其作为证据记录在案，并判定Meta和YouTube对设计成瘾产品负有责任。全世界正在继续消化这一里程碑式的裁决，并理清其影响。
When I practised competition law in the early 2000s, the race between competitors could turn ugly in familiar ways: predatory pricing(掠夺性定价), foreclosure(排他性行为), killer acquisitions(扼杀性收购), pay-for-delay(付费延迟). Such practices were eventually prosecuted, and resolved with hefty fines and the occasional structural remedy.(这些做法最终会被起诉，并通过巨额罚款和偶尔的结构性救济解决。)
当我在21世纪初从事竞争法实务时，竞争对手之间的竞争会以一些熟悉的方式变得丑陋：掠夺性定价、排他性行为、扼杀性收购、付费延迟。这些做法最终会被起诉，并通过巨额罚款和偶尔的结构性救济解决。
The internal documents produced in KGM v Meta Platforms describe a different race entirely. In 2016 Meta was losing ground to(输给，失去优势) TikTok and Snapchat. That year, executives set the “overall company goal” as “total teen time spent”. Why? An internal memo found that 12-year-olds were three times as likely as 32-year-olds to stay on Facebook for the long term, despite the platform nominally(名义上地) requiring users to be at least 13; the memo concluded that Facebook “should consider investing more heavily in bringing in larger volumes of tweens(小学高年级学生/青少年前期)”. The logic was ruthlessly simple(冷酷地简单): children who arrived the youngest were the “stickiest(粘性最高的)” users. Hence the formulation later read aloud in court: “If we wanna win big with teens, we must bring them in as tweens.”
在KGM诉Meta Platforms案中产生的内部文件描述了一场完全不同的竞争。2016年，Meta正在输给TikTok和Snapchat。那一年，高管们将“总体公司目标”设定为“青少年总使用时长”。为什么？一份内部备忘录发现，12岁用户长期留在Facebook的可能性是32岁用户的三倍，尽管该平台名义上要求用户至少13岁；备忘录得出结论，Facebook“应该考虑加大投入，吸引更多的小学高年级学生”。逻辑冷酷而简单：来得最早的儿童是“粘性”最高的用户。因此就有了后来在法庭上宣读的表述：“如果我们想在大龄青少年身上大胜，就必须在他们还是孩子时就把他们引进来。”