Was Jonathan Haidt right all along? Readers of this newsletter—and writers at Reason—are surely divided on this one. On Wednesday of this week, news broke that Meta had reached a humongous $17.1 billion settlement with 47 states and the District of Columbia, forced to pay damages due to child-endangerment claims stemming from its social media algorithms and platforms.
"The owner of Facebook and Instagram agreed to the financial penalties for violating federal child privacy and states' consumer protection laws, the states announced," reports The New York Times. "Meta also agreed to limit how long teenagers can spend on its platforms and to bans on features that stoke mental health issues, striking at the heart of the company's business of engagement for advertising."
