Meta has agreed to a proposed settlement worth up to roughly $18 billion with 52 state attorneys general over claims that Facebook and Instagram were designed to hook young users and mislead the public about the risks. The deal, still awaiting court approval, stems from a 2023 lawsuit accusing Meta of fostering compulsive teen use and unlawfully collecting data from children under 13 in violation of COPPA and California consumer protection laws.
Legato, a hearing-tech startup founded in late 2024 by former Bose and EssilorLuxottica executives Mehul Trivedi and Steve Romine, has exited stealth mode with $12 million in funding. The company unveiled Legato Frames, eyewear that embeds hearing-assistance technology into the temple arms of glasses, with a planned launch this fall. Legato is targeting people with mild to moderate hearing loss, the largest untreated segment of hearing-impaired adults.
Instagram has introduced First Draft, a new iPhone-only feature that automatically assembles a Reel from selected video clips with a single tap, trimming pauses and cutting footage into a rough edit. Meta emphasizes the tool only offers a starting point, with every change reversible and reorderable before final publishing or further editing.
Meta has reached a settlement with attorneys general from 29 states, ending litigation that covered claims from 47 states and several territories over harms to young users. The company agreed to build an independently tested age-verification system, let teens disable personalized feeds, cap daily app usage at two hours, and pause notifications overnight and during school hours. Meta will pay $17.1 billion over a decade, with $5.3 billion contingent on YouTube and TikTok adopting similar time limits and matching payments.
Chris Malone, who led OpenAI's data center strategy after joining from Meta and Google in March 2024, has left the company. OpenAI confirmed it recently restructured its infrastructure organization, shifting oversight so that Malone no longer reported to President Greg Brockman but instead to VP Sachin Katti before his exit. The company says several other executives, including Uday Ruddarraju, Brent Mayo and Spas Lazarov, remain in charge of its data center efforts.
WhatsApp is rolling out stronger account-security options, letting users replace their six-digit PIN with a full password containing letters, numbers and symbols, and allowing multiple passkeys across Android and iOS devices. The Meta-owned app is also giving users more context on unknown callers, such as whether a number originates from another country.
Adam Mosseri testified in Meta's multistate trial over child safety that he was unaware a company lawyer instructed Instagram employees to strip certain teen-safety statistics from a 2023 presentation before it reached him. The removed data showed teens viewed suicide, self-harm and eating-disorder content, as well as other 'non-recommendable' material, at significantly higher rates than adults. Mosseri said he never asked to be shielded from such information and understood lawyers' role as reviewing documents for legal accuracy.
Testifying in Oakland in the multistate lawsuit against Meta, Instagram chief Adam Mosseri said he does not instruct employees to conceal information from him that could create legal exposure. He was questioned about whether Meta lawyers restricted internal sharing of research on child safety and teen mental health, and acknowledged the company had narrowed access to some internal studies.
Meta introduced First Draft, an Instagram tool that automatically detects and removes silences and pauses from video clips before laying them into an editable timeline. Users select clips from their Reels Gallery, tap First Draft, then refine the auto-trimmed sequence or post it directly to their feed or Story. The feature rolls out on iOS first, with no confirmed timeline for Android.
Chris Malone, who led OpenAI's data center buildout since March 2025, has left the company, according to CNBC. Malone previously worked as a distinguished engineer on infrastructure at Meta and Google before joining OpenAI to help manage its roughly $600 billion compute spending plan through 2030. OpenAI says it has reorganized its infrastructure team and maintains strong leadership despite the exit.
In testimony from an ongoing lawsuit filed by 29 states against Meta, a former company data scientist revealed that only about 0.165% to 0.2% of teens actually used Instagram's Take a Break feature when it was opt-in, despite Meta previously claiming 90% adoption. The tool, meant to nudge users to pause after extended app use, is now enabled by default for teen accounts following the criticism.
Meta unveiled three new WhatsApp security updates: support for multiple passkeys per account across iOS and Android, two-step verification that now allows full alphanumeric passwords instead of just a six-digit PIN, and an Android-only feature showing extra context about unknown callers, such as their country or shared groups. WhatsApp says over a billion users already rely on passkeys via Face ID, Touch ID, or screen locks.
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