Additional link from another source
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/08/26/meta-kids-safety-features-settlement-01050418
Another fucking slap on the wrist. “The payment will be distributed in annual instalments over a 10-year period.” It’s literally a rounding error for them. I assume this is the same lawsuit as the teen addiction one, where the states had asked for $1.4T in damages - in which case this would amount to literally 1% of the request and add insult to injury.
It’s about 2% of their annual net revenue per year for ten years. Hardly much of a punishment.
I’m not a big fan of Steve Bannon, but I think what he said about political power is among the truest things ever said about modern politics. These big corporations, they’re not so tough. The big law firms? They’re not so tough. But the state can be tough. They’re all gutless cowards at the end of the day that would crumble if even a fraction of the power available was displayed. If one truly takes power and exercises it, that would become apparent. Trying to play nice gets you nothing but lip service and pocket change.
The tech company will pay a maximum of $16.68bn (£12.26bn), according to court documents.
Meta denied wrongdoing in agreeing to settle.
Ok, buddy.
Exactly. That’s the GDP of Morroco. You don’t pay that kind of money if you’re innocent
even if they are innocent (or think they could prove it anyways) they don’t want the precedent and are willing to pay quite a bit to avoid it
Cost of doing business… if they aren’t going to own up and make changes to prevent it in the future, what’s the point?
Yeah, paying to make their problem go away rather than going to the end of trial and getting a bigger fine and more pesky regulation.
“up to” over 10 years, which means they’ll pay 1.8B this year, a massive 3% of annual income, for now and find a way to get out of this before the decade is up
And no user will see a nickel
Where does the money go? Tax revenue? Is that how we’re making the rich pay their share? I didn’t violate any laws, but I still pay taxes and they should too — for the same reasons.
Lawyers take their cut off the top.
I think you mean lawyers takes the entire cake, and leave the crumbs for the rest.
35% to the lawyers
15% to court, state, lawyer administrative costs
40% to Governor’s cousin’s LLC established since last Tuesday specializing in child online safety issues according to their website which goes on to read “would you like me to create promotional flyers and other materials in addition to the website”?
15% nobody can trace where it went - but did you know BOYS are playing GIRL sports?!
25% to a program that passively encourages risky online behavior
20% to pro-business tax breaks
That’s right taxpayer, you’re gonna need to chip in for the extra 50%.
Cost of doing business
Cost of doing business.
To be paid out over 10 years, across almost every state. Just drops in an ocean.
Cost of doing business. Legal for a fee. Etc etc.
Removed by mod
Don’t let them settle! Slay the beast!
Who are they paying this money to? Who’s getting rich this time?
It is now “official” that meta harms children and yet hundreds of people keep upvoting meta content here on lemmy
Who gets the money? Is it enough to disincentives future abuses? Is the abuse still happening? Can they be trusted to not cause such abuses again?
So they are going to stop… right!?
IANAL, but doesn’t settlement mean they don’t admit fault, they have no judgement to actually force changes, and the same case can’t be brought again, aka, they get to keep harming kids, just have to cough up some tiny slice of profit and offer some lip service to doing better? Or, to rephrase, as long as the government gets a cut, they can keep abusing?
Thats correct. So basically good for the company and the lawyers. Sometimes its the best option but in this case, just means they can do it again.
I worked for a security company that has stolen wages and has settled out of court 4 separate times. They will likely continue to do so.
Settlements usually come with enforceable changes. If they continue the same practices, they can be sued again. In such a case, the penalties will likely be established ahead of time in the settlement and will be significantly harsher for the repeat offense.
the ultra rich are evil by default, they couldn’t get to that level of wealth by caring about humanity.
Where does this money go? To lawyers? Government? Won’t be going to the public
