Meta Platforms has agreed to a historic settlement with dozens of states, bringing a high-stakes federal trial to a close over allegations that its platforms fueled a youth mental health crisis. …
Meta Platforms reached a settlement to resolve claims brought by states across the country that the company designed Instagram and Facebook to addict children, misled consumers about their safety, and improperly collected personal data of children who used its platforms, court pa …
Meta Platforms and state attorneys general have discussed a potential mid-trial settlement of a lawsuit accusing the company of deliberately designing Facebook and Instagram to be addictive to young users, Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matt …
The top executive at Instagram said few teenagers used a key safety feature to limit their use before it was turned on by default, at a trial over whether Meta Platforms designed Instagram and Facebook to addict children. …
… M-Y., had alleged the platforms’ owners — Meta Platforms, Google and Snap Inc — contributed to her social media addiction, depression and self-harm. …
A former engineering director at Meta Platforms testified on Wednesday that CEO Mark Zuckerberg fostered a culture that treated child safety as secondary to growth and engagement on Facebook and Instagram. …
Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg called for lower U.S. barriers for open-source AI to better compete with Chinese rivals as the social media giant released a new open-weight model on Monday and said more would follow soon. …
A U.S. appeals court on Monday allowed thousands of lawsuits to move forward against Meta Platforms, Alphabet’s, Google, ByteDance’s TikTok and Snap Inc’s, Snapchat over claims they designed their products to be addictive to young users. …
Attorneys for the state of Tennessee told a jury in Nashville on Monday that Meta Platforms’ leadership disregarded internal research about its Instagram platform’s impact on teenagers as the company sought to maximise profit from young users. …
… The cloud business has benefited from growing deals for Google’s custom AI chip business, including multi-billion-dollar agreements with Meta Platforms and Anthropic.
Meta Platforms has agreed to a historic settlement with dozens of U.S. states over allegations that its platforms fueled a youth mental health crisis, agreeing to pay up to $18 billion and overhaul key features on Facebook and Instagram. The company will initially pay approximately $12 billion, with additional payments conditional on whether competing platforms adopt similar safety standards.
Meta Platforms has agreed to a historic settlement with dozens of U.S. states over allegations that its platforms fueled a youth mental health crisis, agreeing to pay up to $18 billion and overhaul key features on Facebook and Instagram. The company will initially pay approximately $12 billion, with additional payments conditional on whether competing platforms adopt similar safety standards.
Meta Platforms has settled claims brought by 29 states that the company designed Instagram and Facebook to addict children, misled consumers about safety, and improperly collected personal data from child users without parental consent. The settlement was reached during a federal court trial in California, averting what would have been a major test of allegations that social media companies harmed young users.
Meta Platforms and state attorneys general have discussed a potential mid-trial settlement of a lawsuit accusing the company of deliberately designing Facebook and Instagram to be addictive to young users, Bloomberg News reported. The case involves 29 states and is one of the highest-profile tests of allegations that social media companies have harmed young users.
Adam Mosseri, Instagram's head since 2018, testified in a trial brought by 29 U.S. states over alleged addictive design that few teenagers — in the low-single digits — used the "Take a Break" feature before Instagram made it the default setting in September 2024, nearly three years after its launch. Mosseri acknowledged the feature was available to users but said most teens didn't want it before being made mandatory.
A 15-year-old girl from New Jersey dismissed her claims against Meta, Google, and Snap, which alleged the platforms' owners contributed to her social media addiction, depression, and self-harm. Her attorney said the plaintiff chose to dismiss the remainder of her claims to resume her life, though she had sought to hold social media companies accountable.
A former Meta engineering director testified that CEO Mark Zuckerberg fostered a culture treating child safety as secondary to growth on Facebook and Instagram. The testimony came during a landmark trial in which California, Colorado, Kentucky, New Jersey and 25 other states accuse Meta of designing platforms to harm young users and improperly collecting data from children under 13.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg released a new open-weight AI model called Muse Glimmer designed to run on personal computers with a single graphics card, and announced larger models are coming soon. Zuckerberg argued for lower U.S. barriers to open-source AI to compete with Chinese rivals, championing AI distribution over concentrated corporate control.
A U.S. appeals court rejected appeals by Meta and TikTok seeking to overturn a lower court ruling requiring them to face more than 3,000 lawsuits alleging the companies designed their products to be addictive to young users. The court ruled that Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act provides a defense to liability rather than immunity from lawsuits, making the appeal premature.
Tennessee's attorneys told a jury that Meta disregarded internal research showing Instagram's features like autoplay and infinite scroll caused eating disorders, depression and self-harm among teenagers, prioritizing profit over safety. Meta's defense maintains the company has been transparent about risks and works to find and fix problems.
Alphabet faces investor scrutiny over a delayed launch of its Gemini 3.5 Pro model and concerns about returns on massive data-centre spending, though the company posted blockbuster cloud sales growth. The company has increased 2026 capital expenditure guidance to between $180 billion and $190 billion and announced plans to raise about $85 billion in equity offerings.
Meta faces trial in Tennessee over claims that Instagram was designed to be addictive and contributed to a youth mental-health crisis. Tennessee's Attorney General alleges the company violated consumer protection law by knowingly designing the product to drive compulsive teen use, failing to disclose internal research on harms, and misleading the public about platform safety.
A reconciliation committee of France's Parliament approved a bill to ban social media access for those under 15, with French President Macron seeking implementation by early September. The measure follows Australia's ban for under-16s and comes as European Commission President Von der Leyen has supported similar limits across the EU.
Meta Platforms is in talks to lease computing power to Anthropic in a potential deal worth up to $10 billion over two years, according to a source familiar with the matter. The discussions are in their early stages and may not result in a deal.
A federal judge denied an emergency motion by 26 Meta employees to block their layoffs while they pursue claims that the company's AI tools targeted them for job cuts because of disabilities or medical leave. The judge said the workers could not demonstrate "irreparable harm," though he noted the lawsuit raises "serious questions" about Meta's conduct and may reconsider his decision based on additional evidence about AI's role in the layoffs.
Meta disclosed in a court filing that four US states are seeking $1.4 trillion in penalties over allegations the company designed Facebook and Instagram to addict young users and misled the public about their safety, ahead of an August trial in Oakland, California.
Microsoft is eliminating roughly 4,800 positions (2.1% of its workforce) as the company spends heavily on AI infrastructure and uses the technology to improve business efficiency. The cuts follow a wave of tech layoffs driven by Big Tech's historic AI investments, set to top $700 billion this year, as companies seek returns from the technology.
A U.S. District Judge rejected Meta Platforms' attempt to dismiss a lawsuit filed by 29 state attorneys general accusing the company of designing Facebook and Instagram to addict children and concealing the harms. The judge denied Meta's motion to dismiss claims based on deception and unfair practices, and granted summary judgment to the states on violations of the federal Children's Online Privacy Protection Act.
A U.S. appeals court in Cincinnati ruled that Ohio can enforce a law requiring social media platforms including Instagram to obtain parental consent before allowing children under 16 to use their services, overturning a lower-court block and finding the law does not violate First Amendment protections.
Florida's attorney general filed a lawsuit claiming TikTok violated the state's law barring social media platforms from allowing children under age 14 to create accounts, alleging the platform allows underage users access and misrepresents exposure to violent or sexual content. TikTok says it is complying with the law and suspending accounts of users under 14 in Florida.
An industry analyst argues that artificial intelligence's real disruption in Ghanaian marketing is not automation but the ability to uncover behavioural patterns and hidden opportunities at scale, moving beyond the broad generalisations and assumptions that have long dominated the industry.
An opinion piece argues that artificial intelligence's real disruption to Ghana's marketing industry is not automation but the ability to uncover patterns and behavioural truths at scale, enabling brands to compete by discovering and acting on hidden opportunities faster than before.
Italy's competition authority (AGCM) has dropped its investigation into Meta over allegations of abusing its dominant position by installing an AI tool on WhatsApp, citing the European Commission's extension of its own probe to cover Italian territory.
U.S. President Donald Trump disclosed at least $220 million in financial transactions involving major U.S. company securities in the first three months of 2026, according to ethics filings released by the U.S. Office of Government Ethics. Purchases included securities linked to Microsoft, Meta Platforms, Oracle, Broadcom, and other firms, with the cumulative value reported in broad ranges totaling between $220 million and around $750 million.