Social media company facing lawsuits across US and Australia over alleged addictive design of Facebook and Instagram harming minors, settled youth safety claims for up to $18 billion.
News reports
Order a long-term news report on Meta Platforms
Every mention in the Ghanaian press over the period you choose, compiled as a PDF or Word document.
Verbatim sentences from the source article.
Joy Online
Ohio can implement a law requiring social media companies, including Meta Platforms’ Instagram, to obtain parental consent before allowing children under 16 to use their platforms, a U.S. …
US court rules Ohio can restrict children’s use of social mediaJoy Online
… TikTok, Facebook and Instagram parent Meta Platforms, and other social media companies are facing thousands of lawsuits brought by individuals and school districts over their impact on young users. …
Florida sues TikTok, claiming it violates state child safety lawBusiness & Financial Times
… AI-powered media buying systems within Google Ads and Meta Platforms are now optimising campaigns based on actual behavioural signals such as purchase intent, conversion probability, and customer retention. …
The discovery machine: How AI is rewiring marketingBusiness & Financial Times
… AI-powered media buying systems within Google Ads and Meta Platforms are now optimising campaigns based on actual behavioural signals such as purchase intent, conversion probability, and customer retention. …
The discovery machine: How AI is rewiring marketingJoy Online
Italy’s competition authority said on Monday it had dropped an investigation into Meta Platforms over allegations that the company abused its dominant position by installing its artificial intelligence tool on the messaging service WhatsApp. …
Italy regulator drops investigation into Meta’s WhatsApp AI botJoy Online
… The purchases included securities linked to companies such as Microsoft, Meta Platforms, Oracle, Broadcom, Bank of America , and Goldman Sachs, as well as trades in municipal bonds. …
Trump ethics filing reveals thousands of trades tied to US corporate securitiesMeta has struck a deal with Mark Zuckerberg to keep him in California by providing non-voting shares he can sell to cover a potential multi-billion-dollar tax bill if California's proposed wealth tax passes, in exchange for him committing to remain a California resident or wherever Meta's headquarters are located for eight years.
22 October 2026 · Joy Online →
Meta has struck a deal with Mark Zuckerberg to keep him in California by providing non-voting shares he can sell to cover a potential multi-billion-dollar tax bill if California's proposed wealth tax passes, in exchange for him committing to remain a California resident or wherever Meta's headquarters are located for eight years.
22 October 2026 · Joy Online →
A class-action lawsuit has been filed in Australia's Federal Court against Meta's Facebook and Instagram, alleging the platforms exposed children to harmful content and kept them addicted through algorithms. The suit, filed on behalf of eight plaintiffs alleging harm before age 18, could be Australia's first to blame social media for harming users.
22 October 2026 · Joy Online →
New Mexico asked a judge to order Meta to pay between $35 billion and $40 billion in penalties after a jury found the company had misled consumers about the privacy of their data on Facebook, stemming from the Cambridge Analytica scandal in which a British political consulting firm harvested personal data from as many as 87 million Facebook users without their consent.
2 October 2026 · Joy Online →
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.
26 August 2026 · Joy Online →
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.
26 August 2026 · Joy Online →
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.
26 August 2026 · Joy Online →
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.
26 August 2026 · Joy Online →
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.
21 August 2026 · Joy Online →
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.
20 August 2026 · Joy Online →
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.
11 August 2026 · Joy Online →
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.
11 August 2026 · Joy Online →
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.
28 July 2026 · Joy Online →
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.
22 July 2026 · Joy Online →
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.
21 July 2026 · Joy Online →
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.
21 July 2026 · Joy Online →
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.
20 July 2026 · Joy Online →
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.
20 July 2026 · Joy Online →
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.
7 July 2026 · Joy Online →
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.
6 July 2026 · Joy Online →
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.
30 June 2026 · Joy Online →
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.
18 June 2026 · Joy Online →
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.
16 June 2026 · Joy Online →
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.
12 June 2026 · Business & Financial Times →
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.
10 June 2026 · Business & Financial Times →
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.
9 June 2026 · Joy Online →
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.
15 May 2026 · Joy Online →