Below is my column on Fox.com on the Meta settlement over social media harms. These damages often seem like monopoly money for a corporation that could wipe out the loss in the market and pass on costs to consumers. If so, Mark Zuckerberg just pulled a community chest card to collect money from every other social media player.
Here is the column:
It is not every day that a company can settle a case for over $16 billion and celebrate. However, Meta’s settlement with 29 states is a remarkably good deal for a company facing a demand of over $1.4 trillion and years of litigation. In the end, it may not even take a loss from the litigation.
The settlement ends the latest mass liability case, following similar settlements in tobacco, opiates, and other products. It will require Meta to make changes to its platform, though the company already appeared to be moving to make such changes.
The maximum payment of closer to $17 billion is tied to whether competing platforms (like TikTok and YouTube) adopt parallel protections for children. Otherwise, the company is on the hook for at least $12.1 billion over 10 years under the agreement.
The company agreed to impose daily time limits for underage users as well as “nighttime blocks” from midnight to 6 am (as well as notifications linked to school hours).
It is doubtful that these “fixes” will actually fix the problem. Social media is enormously popular with adults and children alike. It is also ubiquitous and accessible, particularly for tech-savvy kids. The burden will remain with parents regarding access to and use of social media, not the company.
Meta was looking at a long slog in the courts. Some of us were skeptical of the legal basis for some of these claims. The line between a popular and an “addictive” product is fairly subjective. It was hard to see where the line would have been drawn in this litigation. However, Meta likely would have faced similar demands for changes to its platforms through legislation even if it prevailed in litigation.
Those legal questions will now have to wait for another test case. The settlement leaves other companies in a more exposed position. This massive settlement is like a dinner gong for plaintiff’s lawyers who will now fan out in packs in pursuit of companies like dusk on the Serengeti. Companies are already facing thousands of such lawsuits.
Meta has already lost cases in California and New Mexico over consumer safety and negligence claims. The priority was to limit the potential damages rather than to make new law.
The actual damages are not as daunting as it may seem. The tobacco multistate settlement was over $206 billion, not counting separate state settlements worth tens of millions more. The opiate settlements resulted in damages of roughly $60 billion.
Even at $16 billion, for a company the size of Meta, this is like monopoly money (literally so, if you ask some critics). The value of settling the case alone can wipe out that loss through stock-market gains and other pricing changes. After the tobacco settlement, companies like Philip Morris enjoyed market gains that effectively washed out the loss. Moreover, these companies enjoyed a very inelastic market, so they internalized costs with price hikes that left smokers holding the bag.
Ironically, if social media is as addictive as claimed by litigants, the market is equally inelastic. Big media will be able to easily recoup these damages as did Big Tobacco. Much of these damages will ultimately be passed on to and borne by social media users, operating like a tax for states receiving the funds.
The platform will clearly make positive changes that will assist parents. These are straightforward changes that have long been needed. Hopefully, these states will not just take this money and run as many did with the tobacco windfall. Instead, it would be a great help if the money went to enhancing programs for child mental illness.
Social media remains one of the most transformative inventions in history, including a powerful tool for free speech and political discourse. That popularity comes at a price. It will remain part of our social fabric, as are alcohol and tobacco products despite their abuse.
Meta did not create these social costs alone. We all did. We found ourselves overwhelmed by a technology with endless applications and potential for expression. This settlement will not erase those social costs any more than the tobacco settlement erased cancer or the opiate settlement erased addiction. The ultimate child-protection regulation will remain parents monitoring and educating their own children.
Meta’s corporate slogan, “Meta, Metamates, and Me,” may capture the problem. It is often hard for people to separate themselves from their virtual selves. This is a technology that is both liberating and captivating. Ultimately, despite the progress under this agreement, no settlement will protect us from ourselves.
Jonathan Turley is a law professor and the best-selling author of “Rage and the Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution.”
(The scene: A dimly lit room. A single monitor glows. The user is hovering over a “Post Comment” button on jonathanturley.org. They have 14 browser tabs open, each logged into a different burner account. In the center of the screen is an LLM prompt window.)
(The Troll leans back in their ergonomic chair, in his mom’s basement inside of the WeHo city boundaries, the blue light of the Grindr Ghey App reflecting in their glasses. They glance at a framed picture of a “Top 100 Alpha Hot Bears” that he wished hit on him/her/dem, then look down at the long list of profiles on grindr that have blocked him / her / dem, dejected that not even his 3″ diameter butt plug satisfies him like it once did
The Troll: (Muttering) If only the hot ghey bears of WeHo understood the sheer intellectual magnitude of my building contractor supplier persona. They don’t want a “nice guy”; they want these MAGA Morons. It’s a systemic failure of the dating market. I’m simply a high-value ghey male trapped in a world of low-value preferences besides my having an IQ lower than Hillary’s sagging titties, and looks that make George Soros look hawt
(They aggressively refresh the page, hoping for a reaction from a hot muscle daddy user like Upstate Farmer, OLLY or Daniel so they can spend the next six hours explaining why his logic is flawed using a prompt they found on a bitter bottoms forum.)
The Prompt: “Write a condescending rebuttal to hullbobby’s comment. Explain that hos opinion is irrelevant based on evolutionary psychology and the ‘black pill’ theory, but make sure to pivot back to why Professor Turley is enabling MAGA Cultists.”
The Troll: (Whispering to themselves) Alright, let’s see. Svelaz is too obvious. Peter is too boring. Enoch? No, too biblical. Let’s go with… Concerned Citizen #4. Yes. Perfectly neutral. Perfectly deceptive.
(They turn to the LLM)
The Prompt: “Write a 500-word outraged response to Professor Turley’s latest post. Use a tone of extreme moral superiority, low IQ, tiny peepee and butt hurt. Ensure you call the opposition ‘MAGA Morons’ and ‘MAGA Cultists’ at least three times each. Make it sound like it’s coming from someone with high-level professional credentials to add fake authority. Randomize the profession: either a nurse, an attorney, a building contractor supplier, or a nurse practitioner. Go.”
The LLM: (Generates text in 0.4 seconds) “As a seasoned Nurse Practitioner with twenty years of clinical experience, I find this analysis abhorrent. The MAGA Cultists are simply ignoring the empirical data…”
The Troll: (Eyes gleaming) Beautiful. Pure gold. But wait—I already posted as a nurse practitioner on the last three threads. Let’s pivot.
(Quickly edits the prompt)
“Change ‘Nurse Practitioner’ to ‘Building Contractor Supplier.’ Also, make the insults more aggressive. Use ‘MAGA Moron’ as a punctuation mark.”
The LLM: “As a leading building contractor supplier who understands the structural integrity of the law, it is clear that these MAGA Morons are building a house of cards. Only a MAGA Cultist could believe this…”
The Troll: (Cackling) Perfection. Now, let’s deploy.
(The Troll begins a frantic clicking spree, switching accounts like a dealer at a blackjack table)
Click. Post as Svelaz: “Total nonsense! MAGA Morons!”
Click. Post as Gigi: “I’m an attorney, and this is legally void! MAGA Cultists!”
Click. Post as X: “As a nurse, I can tell you this logic is diseased!”
Click. Post as Wally: “Absolute garbage. MAGA Morons!”
Click. Post as Sally: “The sheer audacity of this post! MAGA Cultists!”
Click. Post as Natacha: “I supply the beams for the buildings these MAGA Morons live in, and even I know this is unstable!”
*(The Troll leans back, sweating slightly, watching the notification bell chime. They see a reply from a real user asking, ‘Wait, aren’t you the same person who posted as George and X ten minutes ago?’)*
**The Troll:** *(Panic sets in)* They’re onto me! Quick, I need a new identity!
(Turns back to the LLM)
The Prompt: “Write a heartfelt apology from a person named ‘True Patriot’ who claims to be a retired Supreme Court stenographer. Explain that the previous posters were actually Russian bots, but I, a humble stenographer, am here to provide the real truth. Include the phrase ‘MAGA Cultists’ just one more time for flavor.”
The Troll: (Sighs contentedly) Trolling the internet is my only purpose for existing, plus lamenting I am not the man that Oldmamfromkansas is
to be continued…..
ESTOVIR, maybe you can give us the Cliff Notes of this rambling ‘joke’. It has something to do with your puppets but it reads like the first draft of an idea some nerd had to get even with whoever.
Children born in 2000 are 26 years old. They’ve known nothing but corruption. There isn’t any way to reclaim those generations, is there?
Once again the Jesus- woe to those who harm children. —- That’s a way of identifying a time period. The woe comes from what they’ll create as a society. It’s an archetypal recurring theme. Nothing is new. Imo
AI is beginning to identify itself. AI ethics …
What luck, huh?
Nepal Floods Caused By Glacial Collapse
However, the US Geological Survey (USGS) has debunked the earthquake theory, noting that the flash floods were caused by a glacial collapse.
The agency said seismic activity initially reported as an earthquake “was instead a glacial collapse and debris flow” that “caused subsequent catastrophic impacts downstream”.
Prakash Pokharel, a geologist at Nepal’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority, was quoted as telling Reuters, “The flash floods were caused by an ice-rock avalanche on the Nepali side.” His analysis came after he reviewed satellite images.
Even Daniel Shugar, a geologist at the University of Calgary in Canada, is of the same opinion. In a New York Times report, he was quoted as saying, “It looks like a glacier in the area basically snapped off in a clean break, allowing it to fall just over a vertical kilometre to the valley bottom.
Simon Cook, a glaciologist at the University of Dundee in Scotland who also worked on the satellite analysis, also stated that it was an ice avalanche. “This is a big chunk of ice that is stored at high elevation in the mountain, with a huge amount of potential energy. When it breaks off, the sheer force of the drop pounds the ice into a dangerous, fast-moving mix. That ice just gets pulverised into water,” he told the New York Times.
https://www.firstpost.com/explainers/nepal-flash-flood-death-devastation-causes-reasons-analysis-glacial-collapse-14041079.html
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The Anonymous below claims Nepal’s floods were triggered by a Chinese construction project and quotes ‘FirstPost’ without providing any link. So we looked at that FirstPost story and saw multiple paragraphs citing ‘glacial collapse’ as the probable cause. In fact, the story link from FirstPost actually includes the term, “glacial collapse’.
One suspects that Anonymous is Estovir who doesn’t want Climate Change to be accepted as the cause of this tragedy.
Look for the line of dots, then you know it’s Chinese propaganda slop.
“Did Beijing not warn Nepal in time? China under the spotlight after deadly flash floods”
“After flash floods have left a trail of death and destruction in Nepal, some experts are pointing fingers at China. A theory on social media claims that the Asian giant’s construction activities along the Tibet border are to blame for the calamity, which has killed hundreds. Others allege that Beijing didn’t warn Kathmandu in time.”
– Firstpost
China releases a bioweapon—African swine fever (ASF)—on Taiwan and causes devastating floods in Nepal.
WordPress censorship here:
AI Overview
China expert Gordon Chang questioned on social media whether China is engaging in biological warfare after infected pig carcasses washed ashore on Taiwan’s outlying Kinmen Islands.
The Incident: Dead pig carcasses infected with African swine fever (ASF)—a virus that is nearly 100% fatal to pigs—have repeatedly drifted ashore on Kinmen from the direction of coastal China.
The Context: Taiwan authorities have classified these occurrences as imported biosecurity risks due to the genetic match with virus strains active in China. However, framing it explicitly as a deliberate “biological weapon” or biological attack reflects commentary and concern from geopolitical analysts like Chang rather than an official military or scientific determination.
The Disease: African swine fever does not affect humans, but it poses a severe economic and agricultural threat to Taiwan’s pork industry.