Meta Reaches $18 Billion Settlement With States in Landmark Trial Over Teen Social Media Addiction
Evil wins this round… and every other round, world without end.
Just a reminder that WhatsApp is owned by Meta. I forgot
They make 200B every year. This settlement will be a tax write-off for them.
That’s revenue, their profit was $60B last year so it’s a pretty big fine. The payment is over a 10 year period though and roughly $5B out of the $18B is conditional, they only have to pay that of other companies like YouTube and TikTok don’t follow Meta’s lead on their changes:
- 2-hour daily cap, default across FB + IG, with warnings at 60/90 mins and 15-min nudges after
- Night Mode: blocked 12am-6am
- School Mode: muted notifications 8am-3pm
- No like counts visible to teens
- Ban on extreme makeup filters
- Stronger age-verification to catch under-13s and teens using fake adult birthdays
I’m sure the “are you a teen?” enforcement is really gonna hammer that nail in, too.
Just the cost of doing business.
Edit: The settlement will be paid out over 10 years. If Meta pays a steady $1.8B every year that’s <1% of annual revenue. Damnit!
Damn, if I was punished by being fined less than the the interest on what I stole
I’d rob a bank
Not using their products that you yourself think are hostile to you does more than that 18 billion, and it’s easy, and it’s more enjoyable than the alternative.
That’s like fining me $20. Oh no poor Zuckerberg
Middle managers might get furloughed and some employees with seniority get laid off as an excuse to clean house. Win win
I won’t weep for Meta employees.
