An impressive amount of gall. Meta will only pay the full settlement if their competitors ALSO pay a fine. From the article:

The remaining 30% (approximately $5.3 billion) will be released only after two specific conditions are met.

YouTube and TikTok implement a one-hour Daily Limit, Night Mode, and age assurance measures. YouTube and TikTok each pay an amount matching the 30% figure, with half of the remaining funds tied to YouTube's payment and half tied to TikTok's.

They learned good from the tobacco industry about how to manage this properly. Getting way out in front of things and pretending to regulate themselves.

Genuinely unhinged that companies can just lie this way to the public and it’s completely fine. Normal even.

You didn’t agree to shit, Meta. You’re scum, so much so that even in the incredibly hostile to industry regulation environment we find ourselves in, you managed to get fined.

>It also makes the assumption that these platforms are the only possible place on the web for minors to get information. That's only true because these platforms literally made it that way.

The platforms cannot stop someone from publishing information on a website outside of the platform.

Some countries (India, Brazil, Mexico and Indonesia) run entirely on WhatsApp including payments.

If you want to book a doctor's appointment you don't call and talk to an AI chat bot you message them on WhatsApp.

Signal was starting to gain traction until they dumped text message support and people were like, "well if I need two apps now I'll just drop Signal"

Is there a "crypto-shred" method for destroying access to your account? Like, change your email to one that expires/isn't reusable, then change the password to some totally random, lengthy string and then never record it?

It's like asking people to stop buying iPhones or using Windows, it's too late now.

If you don't write the regulations yourself, then these companies are happy to come along and write them for you.

I would love to. Unfortunately, half of my friends are on Instagram and the other half on WhatsApp. We are screwed.

> A settlement only binds the relevant parties.

True but with this (lousy) deal Meta ensures no legal precedent will be set and it publicly establishes a baseline of terms and installment payments all the states have agreed to accept. That turns a serious existential threat into, essentially, a capped business tax. The negotations with TikTok and YouTube will start with these terms and end not far from them.

The clever thing Meta did was make 30% of the money they're giving the states ($5.3B) conditional on the states getting both TikTok and YouTube to agree to the same terms. They're basically incentivizing the enforcers to find a way to force the same terms on their biggest competitors.

No. It's as you say here, as well.

A settlement only binds the relevant parties, but I don't think it's terribly conspiratorial to think the details of this settlement are an implicit threat to Meta's competitors. "Meta agrees to implement a one-hour limit, but only after Youtube and Tiktok do the same" sounds very much like Youtube and Tiktok had better fall in line if they don't want to get sued themselves.