Meta settles lawsuit, pays $17.1 billion over absurd claims 

Zuck is cooked: his company has agreed to pay $17.1 billion to various states that sued Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, over allegations of harms to children.

Mark Zuckerberg evidently thought he was likely to lose, as the public sentiment has shifted so wildly against his company — it’s common to hear people assert as fact that it’s obvious Meta is harming children. That it’s some fact we all know, even though it’s highly disputed — and even dubious — what these so called harms are.  

Make no mistake what’s happening here: The government is trying to decide for you, the parents, what level of access your children, your teenagers, are allowed to have to social media and tech, based on alleged harms that happened to someone else. I state again that the mass harms to children are entirely theoretical.  

The states have taken the position that Meta’s products are designed to be addictive, so that kids will keep using them: They will keep scrolling on social media, and stay there.  

But of course, the content on social media is just speech and expression, which is protected by the First Amendment. And young people have First Amendment rights too: They........

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