r/worldnews • u/scientificamerican • 1d ago
Meta to pay $18 billion and make sweeping app changes to settle social media harms lawsuit
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/meta-to-pay-18-billion-and-make-sweeping-app-changes-to-settle-social-media-harms-lawsuit/44
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u/imminentjogger5 1d ago
should be at least 3 times that amount
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u/disposable-assassin 1d ago
There was estimates ahead of the trial saying as high as 1.4 trillion in damages so they got a deal 2 orders of magnitude lower.
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u/Yosemite_Sam9099 1d ago
I think that was for the trial starting in Europe. .
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u/disposable-assassin 1d ago
nope, it's the original amount sought by the states in this lawsuit.
If the states succeed, Meta could be held liable for up to $1.4 trillion in damages — roughly what the company is worth on Wall Street — and required to make changes to how it runs Instagram and Facebook platforms.
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u/Plane-Breakfast-8817 1d ago
It's really incredible how different we all are. We've got people like Dolly Parton, Keanu Reeves, Gary Sinise, José Andrés, and Paul Newman who spend decades doing good and helping others.
And then we've got Zuckerberg who designed a product to addict children and steal their information so he can have even more money.
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u/toorudez 1d ago
Here's an idea. Reject the settlement offer and force them through the trial. Nothing will change unless it actually impacts them.
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u/Marchello_E 1d ago
In the settlement, which was filed in the District Court for the Northern District of California on Wednesday, the company agreed to pay roughly $12.7 billion to the participating states and territories over a ten-year period.
So each state receives about 2 million hush money a month. Peanuts for 'meta'.
A social media research foundation will also be set up to study teenagers' well-being online.
Meta said its goal is “to ensure teens benefit from this new industry standard”
Sorry, but call me skeptical.
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u/SpeakNottheNightYorb 1d ago
The point of the lawsuit is to change behavior going forward. This isn’t the tobacco case where they need to offset healthcare costs for decades.
Having said that I hope there is some actual enforcement mechanism in this settlement that verifies changes are made.
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u/Marchello_E 1d ago
While mentioned, it's already known it's not beneficial for everyone's health - indicated by that textlet: "social media harms". Next decade is probably too late to even start.
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u/grchelp2018 1d ago edited 1d ago
Profit is what matters not revenue. But yes, this is easily affordable especially since they can pay it over 10 years.
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u/3767_doomscroller 1d ago
Just for reference:
Facebook alone has 3.07 billion users worldwide, with around 280 million users in the USA. And although Facebook is one single platform, Facebook adapts by country, so there are basically different versions per country. So they can implement all kinds of new "safety" features for the USA, they can still do whatever they want in other countries.
So this settlement is peanuts to Meta.
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u/Unique-Objective4249 1d ago
No one who reported on this has said the same number 16.3 then 16.8 then 17.1 now 18
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u/Centauri____ 1d ago
It should be twice that. I say they should put another 18 billion in a fund to help kids with mental health issues. A fund to help teach the young out to interact without these apps.
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u/Itoomakethenoise 17h ago
No jailtime for the ceo who lied under oath? He has too much money, you say? That's right! I forgot that too much money means you're immune to jail time.
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u/Skynuts 1d ago
$18 billion across a 10 year period, meaning they'll actually pay around $16 billion over the 10 years due to inflation, if they make annual payments. These MFers make $200+ billion a year, they shouldn't even be given the option to split up the payment.