In the frenetic and hyper-fast world of the internet it is never easy to discern the truth from the numerous conspiracies. A piece of news at the limit comes, for example, from George Hayward, a recently fired former Meta employee. Hayward asserts that Facebook and Messenger mobile apps are purposefully designed to use up smartphone battery life faster.
It is important to remember that the batteries of the latest generation devices are more capacious and smarter than older smartphones. Most of today’s operating systems tend to notify the user when a particular app is consuming too much energy, allowing the user to stop it to preserve the autonomy of the smartphone.
In any case, what Hayward reveals is certainly alarming. Let’s try to understand each other more.
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George Hayward: “Facebook app purposely drains smartphone battery”
Hayward, 33, says he was fired by Meta after objecting to the negative tests. It is a practice used by big techs to test the ability of an app to absorb energy from mobile devices.
The former employee explained to the New York Post that he opposed it for mainly ethical reasons, and that the practice would not be active on all devices. Being still in the testing phase, as is often the case, this energy-wasting feature would currently be active only for a few userschosen in a manner random.
Following the firing, George Hayward filed a lawsuit against Meta, denouncing the seriousness of these tests. In the accusation against him, the thirty-three-year-old states that deliberately downloading users’ devices is a dangerous practice, as it would not allow smartphones to be used in emergency situations, such as in the event that it is necessary to contact the emergency services. The lawsuit was later dropped in federal court in Manhattan after Meta convinced Hayward to argue it in arbitration.
At the moment it’s not clear why Meta would be interested in draining the batteries of users. What is certain is that from today we will try to pay more attention to the notifications of our device. If it were to appear to us that “the Facebook app is consuming too much energy”, perhaps Hayward could be right.