Meta has reached a proposed settlement with dozens of states over allegations that it built Facebook and Instagram to be addictive to minors and improperly collected children's data. The deal, still pending court approval and involving no admission of wrongdoing, requires Meta to impose default two-hour daily time limits for under-18 users, overnight app blackouts, and periodic screen-time reminders, while paying up to $18 billion over a decade to fund youth online safety programs.
Meta reached a settlement with a coalition of state attorneys general, led by California, resolving claims that it downplayed mental health risks to children on Facebook and Instagram. Under the proposed consent judgment, Meta will pay $16.7 billion total, with California potentially receiving up to $2.1 billion, and must implement daily usage limits, nighttime blocks for teens, stronger age verification, and new parental control tools. Texas did not join the settlement, and both sides waived rights to appeal once the court approves it.
Meta has reached an $18 billion settlement with attorneys general from 48 states resolving claims that its platforms harmed young users' mental health. The agreement includes new protections for minors, but the full payout is contingent on rivals TikTok and YouTube adopting comparable safety measures.
Meta has agreed to pay up to $18 billion to resolve a lawsuit brought by 29 U.S. states accusing it of deliberately designing Instagram and Facebook to be addictive to children while aware of the potential harms. The states also alleged Meta improperly collected data from minors without parental consent, violating federal children's privacy law. Meta is not admitting wrongdoing but avoids a jury trial by settling.
Meta has reached a settlement with 29 US states that had sued the company over allegedly designing Instagram and Facebook to be addictive and harmful to minors. Reuters reports the deal could cost Meta as much as $16.68 billion and would involve 52 state attorneys general, requiring Meta to adopt default usage limits during school and nighttime hours plus stricter age verification. The agreement still needs court approval but would let Meta avoid a trial that could have forced broader industry changes.
A commentary piece argues that people abroad continue to hold a favorable, aspirational view of the American system despite domestic criticism at home. The author draws on a personal friendship formed in Bangladesh to illustrate how individuals outside the U.S. perceive its values and opportunities.
New reactor designs, including smaller modular units, are being developed to make nuclear fission a more flexible and reliable source of carbon-free electricity. This shift comes after decades in which nuclear power failed to deliver on early promises of cheap, abundant energy following its transition from wartime use to civilian power generation.
At the grand opening of Buc-ee's first Arkansas location in Benton, CEO Arch 'Beaver' Aplin III told a crowd that included Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders that he prefers building stores in 'conservative, business-friendly' states with strong workforces. He suggested that expansion works best when supported by state leadership from the top down, implying the chain may avoid areas where it feels unappreciated.
On the New York Times podcast 'Hard Fork,' Harvard historian Jill Lepore argues that tech leaders are constructing what she calls an 'artificial state,' where corporations and machines increasingly make decisions once reserved for democratic government. She says this shift bypasses public consent, noting that ordinary people generally don't want more AI or data centers imposed on their lives. Lepore explores the concept further in her forthcoming book, 'The Rise and Fall of the Artificial State.'
The CDC has confirmed a growing multistate outbreak tied to alfalfa sprouts, with dozens of illnesses reported across 15 states and four people hospitalized. Michigan and Wisconsin have recorded the highest case counts, and the update comes just days after a recall of multiple alfalfa sprout products linked to the contamination.
Rising electricity demand from AI data centers is spurring investment in solid-state power transformers, which use semiconductor switching instead of the century-old copper-coil design of conventional transformers. Unlike traditional units, which are hand-built and face multi-year delivery backlogs, solid-state versions can be mass-produced using materials like silicon carbide, making them smaller, lighter, and modular. Tech companies building AI infrastructure are especially drawn to them because they suit the direct current power setups increasingly used to run dense racks of AI chips.
As salmonella outbreaks spread across more than 30 states this summer, affecting products from eggs to nut butters, WIRED's cooking technology reviewer highlights that proper cooking temperatures remain the most reliable way to kill the bacteria. Despite most households owning a food thermometer, surveys show over 70 percent of Americans rarely use one to check whether food has reached safe internal temperatures.
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