Wait, Did Zuckerberg Get Off Easy?

A few weeks ago, Meta looked like it was in deep trouble.

Meta is back on trial in what could be the most consequential moment in social media history.

This trial could change how teenagers and kids use the platform in the future.

As a lot of you will know from listening to our show, I'm very interested in the recent wave of court cases against social media companies for hurting kids.

There was the woman who won against Meta and YouTube in California earlier this year for millions of dollars for addicting her to their apps as a teen, and there was the trial we sent reporters to in New Mexico, where Meta was ordered to pay nearly a billion dollars and make certain changes to its apps.

These were important wins, but they were also kinda patchwork.

The changes Meta was forced to make to Instagram and Facebook in the New Mexico case, for instance, they only apply in that state, and Meta's appealing it anyway, so they could be delayed for years.

The evidence that's come out in these cases is so damning, showing that Meta studied the teen brain to build features that would purposefully hook kids, and that Mark Zuckerberg himself made decisions to keep features despite knowing how dangerous they could be.

What I was craving as a parent and as someone who covers this, is a more comprehensive punishment for the company, and really an overhaul to their apps and their business that will stop them from doing it again.

And it seemed like we could actually get that with a new trial that began in Oakland a few weeks ago.

This was part of a giant series of lawsuits brought by nearly all of the U.S. states and territories.

If the states won this case, the first of these child harm cases to be tried in federal court, Instagram and Facebook could've been forced to make big changes to their apps nationwide, such as removing the recommendation algorithm for all teens.

And the numbers being floated for how much Meta would need to pay in this case ranged from two hundred million dollars to one point four trillion dollars, close to the company's entire market cap.

The financial implications could be massive.

Billions of dollars hanging in the balance.

Meta had tried a last-ditch effort to get this trial blocked by using Section 230, the law, of course, that has long shielded social media companies from trials over content on their platforms.

But the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against Meta.

So the trial got going, and eight days in, Meta was on the back foot.

Its executives were getting grilled publicly on the stand.

There was a real possibility Mark Zuckerberg could be called.

And then, right in the middle of the trial, as the head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, was testifying, came an announcement.

Meta has reached a settlement in a landmark social media trial.

The states settled with Meta, 47 of them, along with Puerto Rico, D.C., and other U.S. territories.

They won some of what they asked for.

Meta agreed to make certain changes, like limiting teens to two hours a day on Instagram and Facebook, turning off access at night, investing in better checks for users' ages, and allowing parents the choice to make their kids' feeds chronological instead of driven by the recommendation algorithm.