Meta Does Surprisingly Well in Q1; What Does This Mean for Human Rights?

Article by Sally Sano

Meta has suffered in the past year, as it changed its name from “Facebook” to “Meta”’ and pushed towards investing $13.7 billion into the metaverse. However, these changes were met with mockery as the internet laughed at how “basic” the designs of Horizon, Meta’s virtual reality world, were. This was furthered by the cuts in advertisement revenue due to Apple’s change in its privacy policy in 2021, making it more difficult for Meta to create ads specialized to Apple users. The policy change was to protect the privacy of its customers. In February 2022, Meta expressed displeasure by stating that it would cost the company $10 billion to adhere to the change. This caused worries that Meta would not do well in their first quarter, with Apple’s privacy changes that should have added fuel to the fire.

However, it seems Zuckerberg had the last laugh, with Meta springing back with their Q1 revenue of $28.19 billion, exceeding expectations by $440 million. This also brought back investors’ confidence in the company as shares rose by 12% within hours after the release of this report, showcasing the company’s agility to diversify its portfolio and calculate its risks well. The shift from metaverse towards AI seems to have boded well for the company as they were able to reap the benefits in a well-timed fashion, cancelling out the suffering from losses of ad revenue. 

How does this relate to the legal world?

Despite Apple’s push towards privacy by insisting that privacy is a “human right”, the world seems to be going in the opposite direction with an increasingly aggressive move towards AI. In 2022, a survey by Deloitte revealed that 97% of the companies surveyed planned to use machine learning in 2023. AI is built on machine learning and other techniques that only get “smarter” as more information is fed to it. And with AI becoming increasingly popular, as shown by companies like OpenAI, Meta (owner of Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp) and Google, we must rethink the extent to which “privacy is a human right” in a world where companies and consumers have benefited from it on such a large scale.

Sources

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/apr/26/meta-q1-earnings-report-2023#:~:text=2023%2019.47%20EDT-,Meta%20revenue%20surpassed%20analyst%20expectations%20in%20its%20first%20quarter%20of,%25%20year%2Dover%2Dyear.

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/trending-tickers-meta-unilever-astrazeneca-taylor-wimpey-102313097.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAAE4AcPEOBSL_x52bZiWgbHhhtgmpoZX6mRbzUR-ohy8PQV1zC_jL2lfT8bFeBuA9he9C1bv4ZqBPPefOZ8lQftjPJmB9X4tTwx7uwM9Sa2I7N_FSmuZdl8XwoHRiOfNEfaj05xXmQAgXjAh5MDoZow4lR-IWU2Oqi5Bif7DTnFy

https://www.businessinsider.com/meta-and-apple-user-privacy-dispute-ios-advertising-2023-2?r=US&IR=T#:~:text=In%202021%2C%20Apple%20changed%20its,target%20ads%20to%20iPhone%20users.

https://mitsloan.mit.edu/ideas-made-to-matter/machine-learning-explained

https://www.nme.com/news/gaming-news/mark-zuckerberg-updates-metaverse-avatar-after-internet-mockery-3295055

https://www.fool.com/investing/2023/02/08/how-much-meta-platforms-spent-on-metaverse-2022/#:~:text=If%20Meta%20Platforms%20is%20correct,up%20being%20a%20colossal%20waste.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-04-26/microsoft-sees-ai-shaking-up-search-while-google-calms-investors#:~:text=Speaking%20to%20analysts%2C%20Alphabet%20Chief,which%20remains%20the%20company%27s%20lifeblood.