Facebook settlement?

Wait it’s called Meta, they sell sunglasses, VR headsets and our personal data (still). Lately our favorite way to share personal information has gotten into a lot of trouble with how it treats its users. This time with teen girls. I don’t know if its important to rehash every detail of Metas recent legal battles as they have been plastered everywhere the past couple of weeks. But just as a primer for anyone who has no idea what is going on. Meta settled with 57 attorney generals to change their practices including screen limits for children, the ability to turn off the algorithimic feed, disabling the like button, and some other content restrictions and moderation. Meta has also agreed to pay $18 billion (kind of). Meta will pay $12.7 billion to the states but will only pay the remaining $5.3 billion when two conditions are met.

1. “YouTube and TikTok implement a one-hour Daily Limit, Night Mode, and age assurance measures.”

2. “YouTube and TikTok each pay an amount matching the 30% figure, with half of the remaining funds tied to YouTube’s payment and half tied to TikTok’s.”

Meta also does not accept any liability in this settlement and will not be held liable for any specific damages done to underage youths (however they still have other litigation).

Meta during this settlement has also called for TikTok and Youtube to do things aswell, putting the ball in their competitors court of billion dollar lawsuits and publicity nightmares. Meta in Q-3 alone this year spent about $10 billion dollars on legal fees (how?). But its not a stretch to say that if Meta has to pay, so will their competitors. Whether Meta really does believe in changing the tech landscape for the youth or because they need to share the joy of stratospherically high legal bills with their competitors.

So whats the Meta now?

Meta now has to hunker down for about 10 years until these restrictions expire, yes the restrictions they will put in place will expire. Opening the possibility for Meta to reintroduce the same exploitive tactics to get you (regardless of age) to use their platforms for longer. Also $18 billion dollars is a lot of money right? Well when you make $60 billion in revenue in the second quarter of 2026 alone then $18 billion broken into annual installments over 10 years sounds pretty easy to manage. But what I’ve read is this is akin to the settlements tobacco companies made in the 90s with states attorney generals? Will Meta really have to change in order to keep the underage segment of their business? Or will it even hurt their long term earnings as a company?

What are we settling?

Major tobacco companies namely Philip Morris (Altria), R.J. Reynolds, and Brown & Williamson signed the Master Settlement Agreement which enjoins them to pay into state programs for healthcare costs related to smoking, marketing to keep children away from nicotine products, and major product and marketing changes for the wider public that will apply forever. Tobacco companies pay a percentage of every product sold to go into these programs. States have even passed laws to enjoin non MSA signers to do this. Putting a massive curb on the ability of any tobacco companies to make billions while millions of Americans die from the negative health consequences of nicotine products. This issue has been beat to death to any person that went to a D.A.R.E or Truth program as a kid but its important to note that the MSA is a perpetual agreement, it will never end AND that the MSA payments tobacco companies make to the states are directly tied to the overall sales of their products. If more cigarettes, cigars and snus are sold, then more money is paid into the escrow funds for state medicaid programs that take care of people suffering from nicotine related illnesses or to programs that help keep people away from using nicotine products. This is entirely different from what Meta enjoined themselves to. First it only restricts one segment of their business, children. Meta also is not bound to this agreement forever, only 10 years. Finally Meta only has to pay $18 billion dollars regardless of the financial success of their harmful products in the future.

It’s pretty sad to even say this agreement holds a candle to the MSA. You could say that it doesn’t need to be as restrictive because the negative consequences of nicotine products are way worse than social media addiction. But what really is the worst thing affecting everyone now? Its social media, it is simply the most destructive thing to the human condition, possibly the most intrusive thing a human can interact with. Social media companies know more about their users than the user themself. It can predict (and influence) human behavior better than the combined study of all psychologists combined. It has more of choice of what you’ll eat, wear, and yes even vote for.

Its important to note that it is absolutely required of the user to give the social media company as much information about their likes and dislikes in order for the company to curate a feed for its users. If a social media company is in the dark about a user, reccomends to many posts that the user doesn’t like, gives them too many or too few notifications, the user will stop using their service. The bar is set very high and the social media companies always hit it. In order for you to be chasing short after short or reel after reel the company has to know what you will respond positively to. When it knows you respond well to certain content it curates it dozens of videos and reccomendations for new content. Armed with highly curated content you become stuck in the scroll you will also find the money part for social media companies, advertisements! Probably the least interesting thing but none the less very effective considering now how ads are shipped. Usually you will find yourself scrolling through an app like Instagram and see a familiar face, some celebrity or media personality talking about how they are going about their day, maybe using some product or drinking from a glass of something. But that was intentional, the makeup you saw that influencer put on or the whiskey you saw your favorite actor drinking was designed with getting you the user to notice it in a subtle way. Not even necessarily buy it but notice it, give it a little light of day, sure maybe pass on this time but you’ll know that bottle of whiskey the next time you walk by it in the liquor store or you’ll think of that toner when you are browsing sephora. Its all very carefully meant to get you to be exposed to advertisements in the least offensive way as possible. The complete opposite of a superbowl ad. Make it seem as little like an ad as possible that way what you just watched seemed authentic, it seemed like something that was meant for you because it showed up on your feed. Now the next time you see it (and you will see it again check the cookie policy of any major online retailer ) you will be more likely to buy it.

Why is it important to rehash the business model of a social media company? Because its always working. You might work an 8.1 hour day , the curation of a social media company is 24 hours a day exploiting you every time you use the service in order to get you to buy something. Or its trying to get you to think a way that keeps you more engaged. Your life revolves around the things that make you feel good. Things that keep you connected to other people, so a service that dictates what you’ll likely buy and how you’ll think is really scary, especially when it has no barriers to entry and no holds bar for what it could reccomend. Whether its metal wallets and people being blown up in Syria or moisturizer from Cera Ve and trauma dumping college students. Its all a created in a specific manner keep you engaged.

Closing Arguments

If you couldn’t tell I’m pretty against social media, but I’m not against people using anything so long as they understand what they are at risk from. I just think that we’ve all accepted that the lives we lead are usually at some point so bad that we need the pacifier of social media and a general addiction to be connected to the internet. Currently I sit with an addiction to Youtube. Yes I am addict aswell, I do not have a dopamine reset monk like philosphy nor do I think most of that shit works. I think that we’re all enjoying a few too many drags off our internet cigarettes and trying to convince ourselves that the habit can be kicked at almost anytime. Tech companies have of course become much more powerful than cigarette companies spending tens of millions of dollars a year convincing the people you were in charge of electing to help keep their product as potent as possible. Actually sometimes cutting out the middleman and showing ads directly to their users to defend the larger tech ecosystem. I want to end this article with a question to you the reader,

If Philip Morris were still able to sell cigarettes to kids but only in packs of 5 instead of 20 cigarettes, and the only thing Philip Morris wanted in return was for R.J. Reynolds and British American Tobacco to do the same. Would you feel like they were punished properly?