Does Big Tech = Big Tobacco? Karl Rove: Nixing Nixon. How Socialist Policies Deny Immigrants the American Dream. Hijab Lessons for Girl Scouts. Hakeem: Feelin’ the Pressure. Royal Good-bye for Dolly. More
Seismic.
That’s how one commentator described Meta’s surprise $17 billion settlement yesterday in a lawsuit—it is the largest tech settlement in history.
The case was brought by a coalition of state AGs, and it argued that the social media giant misrepresented the extent of child-related mental health harms caused by apps like Facebook and Instagram. Minors, the AGs contended, suffered from addiction to Meta products. In addition to the financial settlement, Meta will impose an array of restrictions on use of its products by minors.
An editorial in the Wall Street Journal was initially surprised by the settlement (“Who expected that?”) but then found the settlement “sensible”: It ended litigation for Meta and was for a far smaller payout than the AGs originally asked (which could have exceeded $1.4 trillion). Meta could well absorb the smaller amount. The editors went on to raise serious questions about the lawsuit:
Demanding that Meta pay up and change its platform won’t limit teen social-media use unless similar restrictions apply to other platforms. It could even result in teens spending more time on other platforms with fewer protections. That’s one reason it’s best to address problematic youth social-media use through the political process.
Jackpot justice also lets lawmakers off the hook. Why should Congress put in the work to resolve thorny issues if states can leverage the legal system to force a resolution, which may lack political consensus? Speaking of consensus, notable are the two state AG holdouts, Florida Republican James Uthmeier and New Mexico Democrat Raúl Torrez.
Might they be snubbing the settlement in hopes of obtaining bigger contingency fee awards for their plaintiff attorney friends assisting their litigation—Motley Rice for Mr. Torrez and Keller Postman for Mr. Uthmeier?
George Washington University law professor and Fox Contributor Jonathan Turley compared the Meta suit to the barrage of suits against tobacco companies (in which the concept of actual addiction is clearer):
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 could ultimately be passed on to and borne by social media users through advertising, production or cost decisions. They would potentially operate like a tax for states receiving the funds. …
The platform will clearly make positive changes that will assist parents after Wednesday’s proposed settlement announcement. 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 children’s mental-health programs….
Meta did not create these social costs alone. We all did. We find 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.
An editorial in the Wall Street Journal a week or so before the shock settlement also made the Big Tobacco comparison. As for the restrictions:
Such laws might do some good. But the legal attacks on Meta merely let politicians pretend to protect children while the trial lawyers reap giant paydays. Talk about exploiting children for political profit.
Taking a different view, Emily Cherkin of The Free Press argues that “Meta’s Social Media Settlement Is Not Enough“:
Meta just agreed to make sweeping changes to protect young people online. But the settlement leaves its fundamentally harmful business model intact.
We’re still scratching our heads over CIA Director John Ratcliffe’s quickie trip to Russia. President Trump called the trip “semi-routine,” but Owen Matthews of the London Spectator speculated:
The list of topics urgent enough to prompt the first personal visit of a US cabinet-level official to the Kremlin in six months is short. Ratcliffe could have been responding to reports of a planned Russian escalation against NATO, trying to enlist the Kremlin’s help for Donald Trump’s stalling campaign against Iran or discussing a draconian sanctions bill that could devastate the Russian economy that lies locked and loaded in Congress pending its final reading.
But the true mystery that made the flying visit unusual – and also, for many observers, alarming – was that Ratcliffe was clearly in Moscow to communicate something too sensitive or too urgent to be discussed through the regular phone calls with Sergei Naryshkin.
We’re all thinking about the midterms. Especially WSJ politics guru Karl Rove, whose column today (“Nix on Nixon: How to Defeat the DSA in the Midterms“) consists of a template speech for a Florida political candidate, which could be adapted for other venues. A snippet from The Speech:
How bad could it be? Let’s start with this: The DSA platform wants an America where “you don’t pay a mortgage or have a landlord.” Sounds nice, until you get to the details. In DSA world, government will “build new, publicly-owned social housing.”
Some will remember those big, ugly apartment blocks in the Soviet Union. That’s DSA leaders’ vision, whether they admit it or not. Unless they say otherwise, you should assume Angie Nixon and my Democratic opponent support it.
Although she’s not providing a model speech, my Independent Women colleague Patrice Onwuka in a Washington Post op-ed this morning does something similar to what Rove does—Patrice tells you how socialist policies would affect real people—in this case, immigrant families such as Patrice’s, who came to the U.S. 41 years ago from a tiny spot on the map called Montserrat. A snippet:
I never get tired of only-in-America stories. My belief in the promise of the United States is endlessly renewed by the rich experiences of diverse people who moved to this nation for safety, freedom and opportunity. That’s what makes the socialist movement now surging through the Democratic Party so distressing: It challenges the very ethos that drew my family here.
Importantly, my parents rejected government dependency. During the immigration application process, they had to prove their ability to support their family. Even during hard times, they never sought a penny of public support.
But the Mamdanis of the world ignore the basic economics of the rental market. Freezing rents does not freeze the costs of property ownership and management. The cost of taxes, water, utilities, appliances, home repairs and more continues to rise. Landlords increase rental prices to cover those costs and make enough profit to justify their investments of resources and time. There’s nothing sinister about this form of generational wealth-building.
How can “our democracy” continue to work if one side refuses to even speak to representatives of the other side? The uproar on the Left triggered by House Minority Leader Hakeen Jeffries merely meeting with Jared Kushner would be funny if it didn’t indicate a breakdown in government and politics.
To compensate, the beleaguered Jeffries went on CNN to harumph to Wolf Blitzer about “holding every single member of the Trump cartel accountable.” Jeffries of course is running scared—he very likely won’t keep his job if DSA members have any say.
Girls, Stick to Selling those Yummy Mint Cookies:
Girls Scouts of the USA pushed back Wednesday on reports that mosque-based troops incorporated Islamic prayer, hijab lessons and faith-specific patches into scouting activities across several states, saying outside faith organizations independently run the optional programs.
Closing arguments in the murder trial of Lindsay Clancy, who killed her three children, are set to begin. The verdict hinges on whether Ms. Clancy, who suffered from severe mental health problems, knew right from wrong. The defense couldn’t have liked the bombshell testimony of the prosecution’s last witness.
We Will Always Love You, Dolly. Buckingham Palace guard honored Dolly Parton with a rousing rendition of her hit “9 to 5” in front of the palace. By orders of Their Majesties King Charles and Queen Camilla.
Our hearts go out to the victims: The death toll of the Nepal flood surges as 65 Americans are listed among the fatalities. Meanwhile, a Chinese state outlet is claiming that 558 people are missing in Tibet. Secretary of State Marco Rubio posted that the U.S. Department of State “stands ready” to help Nepal.
