Meta’s Big Tobacco Moment Has Arrived. But There’s a Catch.

The Slatest The company’s $18 billion child-safety settlement could reshape all of social media. Aug 26, 20265:54 PM Photo illustration by Slate. Photos by Jill Connelly/Getty Images and Imen Ben Youssef / Hans Lucas / AFP via Getty Images. Sign up for the Slatest to get the most insightful analysis, criticism, and advice out there, delivered to your inbox daily. Settlements may lack the drama of trials, but they can still be landmark legal wins in their own right. After Meta agreed on Wednesday to settle claims that it designed Facebook and Instagram to addict and harm young users, a debate is already brewing about whether this one qualifies. Monetarily, it certainly seems to. In unadjusted dollar figures, the roughly $18 billion Meta agreed to pay after a coalition of states sued it in f