Meghan and Harry push Meta to answer for ‘unsafe design’
Harry and Meghan urge Meta to be held accountable for what they describe as unsafe design in its products, calling for more transparency and safeguards for users.
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Zuckerberg Expands Global Real Estate with Irish Castle Purchase
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg bought Strancally Castle, a 19th‑century Gothic estate near Meta’s Irish headquarters in Waterford, for roughly €20–€30 million. The 16,000‑square‑foot, three‑story mansion sits on about 440 acres and underscores the billionaire’s growing international real estate footprint beyond California.
Trump’s June Portfolio Shuffle: Berkshire Hathaway Buys in as Meta Sells
President Donald Trump disclosed 1,051 June securities transactions, signaling a broad reshuffle across stocks, bonds and ETFs with total moves estimated between $78.1 million and $263.1 million. The largest single trade was selling $5–$25 million of the Vanguard Dividend Appreciation ETF on June 22, while he bought $1–$5 million of Fidelity National Information Services and Home Depot that same day. He trimmed Meta and Motorola but added stakes in Berkshire Hathaway, Cintas, Visa and Mastercard, and traded a range of ETFs, municipal bonds and defense contractors such as Palantir, RTX, Northrop Grumman, as well as Coinbase. The White House notes assets are held in a trust managed by his children, and the filing does not reveal exact holdings.
YGR Leads Meta Antitrust Fight in California Court
U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers—renowned for her Apple rulings—presides over a high-stakes multi-state antitrust case against Meta in the Northern District of California, using an advisory jury in a six-to-seven week bench trial that could reshape how Meta designs features and targets ads, as 29 states press for algorithm changes amid a broader MDL involving Meta, TikTok, Snap and YouTube.
California-led suit accuses Meta of addictive design exploiting kids’ data
California and 28 states accuse Meta of designing addictive features that hook users, harvest data on children under 13 without parental consent, and hide safety flaws. The landmark Oakland trial could award up to $200 billion in damages and force product redesigns, with an advisory jury and Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers to issue the verdict; Meta denies the allegations as testimony from former employees and safety expert Arturo Béjar is heard.
29 States sue Meta: A landmark case that could reshape Facebook and Instagram worldwide
In an Oakland trial that could last about six weeks, 29 U.S. states accuse Meta of designing Facebook and Instagram to exploit teens’ vulnerabilities—including addictive features like infinite scroll and push alerts—while allegedly concealing internal research on depression and self-harm. The suit, which also cites COPPA violations and consumer-protection breaches, warns that damages could reach hundreds of billions and a court order could require platform redesigns beyond the United States, highlighting a move toward a global digital-duty-of-care standard that other countries may follow.
Court battle could reshape social media by stripping addictive features
California’s lawsuit against Meta seeks to force Facebook and Instagram to remove perceived addictive features like infinite scrolling, autoplay, disappearing content and algorithm-dominated feeds, arguing the business model hooks users and harms minors; a verdict could set a broad precedent and signal that other platforms such as YouTube and Snap may face similar reforms.
Witness links Meta culture to teen-safety gaps in landmark trial
A former Meta insider testified that Mark Zuckerberg's leadership culture hindered safety fixes on Facebook and Instagram, arguing default settings left harmful features enabled for teens and that profit-focused decisions under the culture blocked addressing safety. The multi-state consumer-protection case accuses Meta of engineering its platforms to hook minors and harvest data, with penalties potentially discussed up to $1.4 trillion, while Meta contends the charges rely on selectively quoted documents and that risks were addressed. The six-week trial may glimpse whether Zuckerberg himself will testify.
Meta Glasses at Work Raise Privacy and Harassment Alarms
Public-facing workers are being filmed and harassed by AI-powered Ray‑Ban Meta glasses in workplaces like Target and Sprouts, highlighting a growing privacy and safety dilemma, power imbalances, and the need for clear policies as Meta defends its built-in privacy features.
Meta AI Goes Mac: Screen-sharing and Workspace integration for productivity
Meta is launching a Mac app for its Meta AI chatbot that can share your screen, offer suggestions, answer questions, and generate content from what’s on your screen, with dictation across apps. The app also connects to Google Workspace and can tie into Instagram and Facebook ad campaigns, enabling it to pull data to create decks, docs, and spreadsheets and handle recurring tasks, signaling a shift toward a desktop productivity assistant to compete with rivals like Google Gemini, OpenAI’s ChatGPT, and Anthropic’s Claude.
Meta safety whistleblower: company ignored child harm, Zuckerberg warned
A former Meta safety engineer testified that Meta knew its platforms harmed children and kept a 'don’t ask, don’t tell' approach, saying he warned CEO Mark Zuckerberg about ongoing harmful content and emailed him after Zuckerberg publicly claimed safety was prioritized. The 29-state lawsuit accuses Meta of designing addictive products and collecting data on under-13 users, while Meta contends it bans under-13 accounts and has safety tools. If liable, damages could reach up to $200 billion and may force product-design changes; testimony continues.
Meta in Court Over Alleged Addictive Design Targeting Youth
A California trial pits 29 state attorneys general against Meta, accusing Facebook and Instagram of being intentionally addictive to children and improperly collecting their data; the case seeks age restrictions and the removal of features like infinite scroll, with penalties potentially in the hundreds of billions of dollars; Meta defends its safety protections, cites unsubstantiated claims, and will face testimony from executives such as Mark Zuckerberg and Adam Mosseri, in the context of broader youth-safety lawsuits and prior related verdicts against Meta and Google.
Meta faces high-stakes trial over teen-harm claims that could reshape its platforms
California and three other states open a high-stakes trial accusing Meta of designing features to hook young users and secretly harvesting data from under-13s; Meta defends its safety efforts, citing studies showing mixed teen experiences and saying it deleted many under-13 accounts. The case, a test for a broader multi-state suit, could force changes to the platform (potentially removing infinite scroll) and carry penalties Meta claims could reach trillions, though that figure is disputed. The outcome would add to a wave of lawsuits pressing tech firms on teen mental health and data privacy.
States sue Meta for addictive design, seeking $200 billion in damages
A coalition of 29 U.S. state attorneys general has filed a $200 billion lawsuit against Meta (Facebook and Instagram), accusing the company of designing an addictive platform and targeting youths through its recommender algorithm. Building on earlier cases against social media, the suit could push for changes to how content is ranked and shown, potentially reshaping the industry and its advertising model, even if it stops short of breaking up the company.
Meta Promoted AI Deepfake Nudification of Politicians in Ad Campaign
WIRED reports Meta ran a 32‑ad campaign for Kromix, an AI image tool that can create nonconsensual deepfake porn of women, including politicians; one ad depicted a lookalike of a prominent US female politician in a porn scene, and Apple removed the app from the App Store after WIRED’s inquiry. The ads targeted men, ran for short periods, and Meta says its automated review system flags violations, though critics say enforcement is weak as nudify apps persist. The piece situates these ads within broader concerns about deepfakes, platform safety, and Meta’s ad‑policing practices.