Meghan Bobrowsky

Meta Platforms agreed to an $18 billion settlement with 48 state attorneys general, bringing an end to a massive federal trial over social media’s harm to teenagers and ushering in a new era of tech companies having legal responsibility for their platforms.

Meta Platforms reached a settlement with a Kentucky school district over accusations that social-media companies intentionally designed their platforms to addict young people, becoming the last major platform to resolve the case and avert a coming trial. The settlement spares the companies from a June jury trial that was poised to be the first among more than 1,200 lawsuits brought by school districts alleging student mental-health harms caused by Meta, TikTok, Snap, and Alphabet’s YouTube.

A New Mexico jury found that Meta Platforms, which runs Facebook and Instagram, was liable for failing to protect young people from online dangers, including sexually explicit content, solicitation, and human trafficking. The jury found Meta liable for misleading consumers about the safety of its platforms and endangering children, under the state’s consumer protection laws. The jury ordered a maximum penalty for each violation, totaling $375 million in civil penalties. Meta made 160 times that amount of revenue in its most recent quarter.

President Trump led leaders of the world’s biggest technology companies in a version of his cabinet meetings, in which each participant takes a turn thanking and praising him, this time for his efforts to promote investments in chip manufacturing and artificial intelligence.

Montana lawmakers approved a first-of-its-kind bill to ban TikTok across the state, setting the stage for future court battles that could determine the fate in the US of the popular, Chinese-owned social media app. The Montana House voted 54-43 to send the bill to Gov. Greg Gianforte’s (R-MT) desk. If signed into law, the ban would go into effect on Jan. 1, 2024 and would bar app stores from offering TikTok within the state. It would fine any entity violating this law $10,000 per violation.

Twitter suspended the accounts of several journalists without publicly specifying why, the latest instance of the platform making content or user decisions under Elon Musk without much transparency. The accounts belonged to journalists from publications including CNN, the Washington Post, the New York Times, and Mashable.

Yoel Roth, Twitter’s former head of trust and safety, said several factors led to his decision to leave the platform after almost eight years, including the disruptions created by 

Twitter accepted Elon Musk’s bid to take over the company, which would give the world’s richest man control over the social-media network where he is also among its most influential users. The $44 billion deal marks the close of a dramatic courtship and a change of heart at Twitter, where many executives and board members initially opposed Musk’s takeover approach. The takeover, if it goes through, would mark one of the biggest acquisitions in tech history and will likely have global repercussions for years to come, including possibly reshaping how billions of people use social media. Mr.

The deployment of superfast 5G networks is supposed to usher in a new era for so much more than the smartphone—everything from enhanced virtual-reality videogames to remote heart surgery. That vision has been slow to come into focus, but a first wave of 5G-enabled gadgets is emerging.