Meta has agreed to pay up to $17.1 billion to settle claims by 47 states and thousands of families alleging that Facebook and Instagram were engineered to addict children. While substantial, this sum represents only 2% of the damages estimated by plaintiffs in the trillions of dollars. The legal battle exposes a fundamental governance issue: Mark Zuckerberg retains control through a dual-class stock structure giving him 61% of voting power despite owning just 13% of the company. Meta has already been ordered to pay nearly $1 billion in two cases in New Mexico this year, with thousands of lawsuits still pending. Critics note that Meta deliberately engineered the settlement to establish an industry standard rather than accept responsibility for the harm caused to an entire generation.
Source: Read the original article
