Mark Zuckerberg's Social Reckoning

Meta settled with attorneys general from 47 states for up to $17 billion, requiring Facebook and Instagram to hide like counts, enforce stricter age verification, limit teen use to two hours daily, and block nighttime access. Internal data showed teens saw violent content 100–400 times higher than reported and linked platform use to anxiety, depression, and body-image issues in one-third of teenage girls. In Q2 2026 Meta spent over $2 billion on legal defenses while the lawsuit challenged Section 230 immunity for algorithmic harms.