Meta’s $18 billion settlement puts TikTok and YouTube on notice. Who's next on the firing line?

"Meta is seeking to ensure its competitors will face the same rules," one business professor told CNBC after Meta called on rivals to protect children online.

The deeper lesson of is that product design, as a site of legal accountability, is a workable legal strategy.

California and New York are leading a separate lawsuit against TikTok.

Meta’s deal to settle a federal lawsuit alleging it fueled a teen mental health crisis has a major caveat – its chief rivals TikTok and Google-owned YouTube must agree to make the same safety changes to their apps before Mark Zuckerberg will pay the full settlement.

Meta announced on Wednesday that it has offered to pay about $18 billion to settle the lawsuit against it brought by 52 attorneys general from US states, territories, and the District of Columbia. But part of that payout and some of its concessions are being conditioned on whether YouTube and TikTok will adopt its new