{"text":[[{"start":8.82,"text":"Meta has agreed to pay up to $18bn to settle its blockbuster legal battle with US states over alleged failures of child protection and social media addiction, in one of the largest legal settlements ever made by an individual US company."}],[{"start":23.64,"text":"The parent of Facebook and Instagram has agreed to pay a $16.68bn settlement to 47 states, the District of Columbia and three US territories, according to filings on Wednesday. A separate $1bn settlement with Texas pushed the total to about $18bn."}],[{"start":41.3,"text":"The settlement came as the trial was just getting under way in a California courtroom this month. Meta had previously estimated that losing the case could have cost it hundreds of billions of dollars. The agreement does not include an admission of wrongdoing by Meta."}],[{"start":56.04,"text":"The payout, which the court approved later on Wednesday, is more than double the $7.4bn agreed last year by Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family over claims related to its opioid medication OxyContin."}],[{"start":69.12,"text":"California attorney-general Rob Bonta said the settlement “will make social media less dangerous for our kids and make a world of difference for children and their families”, forcing “massive transformations” to Meta’s platforms within months."}],[{"start":83.96,"text":"Social media companies are facing a wave of similar cases, all of which contend that Big Tech platforms cause personal injury by developing deliberately addictive products."}],[{"start":93.88,"text":"As part of the settlement, Meta has agreed to impose default daily limits and night-time blocks for teenage users of its social media apps, bolster its age-assurance systems to prevent children from accessing inappropriate content and provide extra tools for parents and guardians. The limits do not apply to WhatsApp or Meta’s other direct-messaging services."}],[{"start":113.72,"text":"Meta’s new controls will not apply to Florida and New Mexico, which did not sign up to Wednesday’s agreement and so will not receive a share of the payout."}],[{"start":122.04,"text":"“The framework we’ve negotiated will empower parents to easily manage how their children access our platforms,” said CJ Mahoney, Meta’s chief legal officer."}],[{"start":131.32,"text":"Meta said about $5.3bn of the settlement would only be paid out if YouTube and TikTok each agreed to pay the same sum, as well as implementing some of the same usage limits and age-assurance measures."}],[{"start":136.42,"text":"“Because teens move fluidly across dozens of apps, we need an industry-wide solution,” Mahoney said. Meta said it would introduce tighter default time limits and restrictions on night-time access if YouTube and TikTok also agreed to do so."}],[{"start":159.6,"text":"The Silicon Valley-based company said its settlement payments would be distributed annually over 10 years and that it would incur $10bn in legal expenses related to the agreement. However, it said it did not expect a significant financial impact on its quarterly results, due to the limited income that it generates from teens."}],[{"start":179,"text":"Meta earned $60bn in net income last year and revenues of $201bn, largely from advertising."}],[{"start":186.68,"text":"Katharina Kopp, of the Center for Digital Democracy, a privacy and consumer rights campaign group, estimates that the annual payments amount to “roughly 10 days of Meta’s annual profit”."}],[{"start":197.24,"text":"“The settlement reaches the features of Meta’s platforms but not the [business] engine that drives them,” said Kopp. “Protections won this way, one company and one feature at a time, cannot keep pace with what is being built.”"}],[{"start":209.96,"text":"The social media company’s shares rose 1.1 per cent on Wednesday."}],[{"start":214.48,"text":"The case was spearheaded by state attorneys-general in California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey, who alleged that Meta knowingly built its apps to be addictive to young users."}],[{"start":224.2,"text":"Another group of 29 states accused Meta of collecting data on under-13s in breach of the US Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act."}],[{"start":232.9,"text":"The case, held before US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland, was expected to call on several Meta executives, including chief executive and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg. On Tuesday, Instagram chief Adam Mosseri testified in court."}],[{"start":247.92,"text":"The settlement comes as social media companies are facing a wave of public anger over how their apps can expose youngsters to adult content or keep them glued to their smartphone screens, affecting their mental health."}],[{"start":260.04,"text":"Governments in Australia, Europe and the UK, as well as some US states, are planning or bringing in new age restrictions that would ban younger teens from accessing apps such as Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube and TikTok."}],[{"start":273.24,"text":"Wednesday’s settlement comes after March’s courtroom defeat in a different case brought by an individual plaintiff in Los Angeles, in which Meta and Google were held liable for designing apps intended to be addictive to children."}],[{"start":284,"text":"Meanwhile, a New Mexico judge this month ordered Meta to pay a total of $567mn in compensation and increase the safety features on its apps after finding it to be a “public nuisance” in another case brought by the state’s attorney-general. Meta is appealing against both cases."}],[{"start":301.64,"text":"“Meta’s platforms have been harming children for years, and it’s unfortunate that the company only agreed to implement these safety measures under pressure of litigation,” said Katie Paul, director of Tech Transparency Project, a non-profit watchdog that has been critical of Big Tech companies."}],[{"start":317.52,"text":"“This is not the end of the story. Meta has a long history of not living up to its privacy and safety commitments . . . We will be watching closely to see if Meta actually follows through on these new safety concessions.”"}],[{"start":329.56,"text":"Additional reporting by Michael Acton and Cristina Criddle in San Francisco"}],[{"start":338.52,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1787785384_3402.mp3"}