More: In a dramatic capitulation, the owner of Facebook and Instagram agreed to the financial penalties for violating federal child privacy and states' consumer protection laws, the states announced. Meta also agreed to limit how long teenagers can spend on its platforms and to bans on features that stoke mental health issues, striking at the heart of the company's business of engagement for advertising.
"The focus of this case was to protect our kids: stopping notifications and alerts at night and when they are in school, encouraging them to take breaks from social media, protecting them against harmful features," said Colorado's attorney general, Phil Weiser, in a statement. The agreement exceeded what most courts might order, he added.
The settlement effectively ends a bellwether federal trial in the U.S. Northern District of California in Oakland, where California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey were seeking roughly $200 billion over accusations that Meta harmed children. The states filed their agreement with Meta on Wednesday morning in that court, where Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers is expected to approve it.
Meta still faces numerous other lawsuits from school districts and individuals, some of which are scheduled for trial in the coming months.
The settlement could signal an inflection point for a social media industry that has largely escaped regulatory scrutiny over the harms its products have caused children. The settlement amount is one of the highest ever paid by a tech company to states.
"Meta wouldn't settle unless it sees the writing on the wall and feels really exposed," said Nora Freeman Engstrom, a law professor at Stanford University.
More: Slavin and Korte said the alleged insubordination cited in their termination notices was related to interviews they gave to CBS News for a piece on "CBS Sunday Morning" that aired in July. In the story, Korte said that she worked for Stars and Stripes, "not for the Pentagon, not for any administration, not for any policymaker."
More than a month later, the newspaper published a piece detailing flagging mental health and food and water shortages aboard the Lincoln, which has been deployed for nine months. A day after that story ran, the lawsuit says, the defendants "ordered plaintiff Max Lederer, Stripes' publisher, to present notices of separation to Mr. Slavin and Ms. Korte."
"The notices charged them with insubordination for the statements they made five and one-half weeks earlier on 'CBS Sunday Morning,'" the lawsuit reads.
He did not deliver the notices. Lederer announced his intent to retire at the end of September over "fundamental" differences with the Defense Department, but the Pentagon fired him before he could.
The three fired staffers' complaint says they are "facing imminent retaliation and termination in violation of their First Amendment and statutory rights."
"This action seeks to prevent the blatant violation of the First Amendment rights of these journalists and challenges the U.S. Department of Defense's ("DoD") extraordinary censorship efforts in violation of both the First Amendment and DoD regulations and policies," the lawsuit reads.