Pressure Systems edition
Meta Settlement and Antitrust Trials Test Platform Regulation
September 6, 2026
What this edition shows
Meta's multibillion-dollar settlements with US state attorneys general and ongoing federal antitrust litigation against firms like Live Nation expose the limits of corporate accountability in digital markets. At the same time, commercial operations in places like Riga, Latvia, exploit platform feeds with automated campaigns, underscoring how automated curation and monetization models continue to outpace regulatory enforcement.
Reporting and analysis behind this edition 7 sources
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The product is the problem: Why Meta’s $17 billion settlement matters beyond America
Governments are beginning to intervene not only in the content circulating on platforms, but also in the way they are designed and operate. PhotoTime/Unlimphotos There are good reasons to be skeptical about how much impact Meta’s latest legal settlement will have on the tech giant. After all, the so…
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As Meta Agrees to $17B Settlement, Now Is the Time to Regulate AI Before It’s Too Late: Amba Kak
Amba Kak, the co-executive director of AI Now Institute, joins Democracy Now for a wide-ranging discussion on tech policy, regulation, and accountability. The post As Meta Agrees to $17B Settlement, Now Is the Time to Regulate AI Before It’s Too Late: Amba Kak appeared first on AI Now Institute.
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Meta's $17 Billion Settlement is a Bad Deal for Teens and All Social Media Users
Meta’s settlement with 52 state attorneys general is a bad deal for all internet users, and especially for teens. That’s what we said the day the settlement was announced. In this post, we go through the Settlement’s provisions in detail and explain why that is so, including how: The Settlement embe…
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Meta’s $18b settlement echoes past tobacco lawsuits – and how they avoided harsh penalties
Reading the details of tech giant Meta’s landmark US$18 billion (A$25 billion) settlement with US state attorneys-general brought an intense sense of déjà vu. In the late 1990s, I worked on Nixon v Philip Morris, Australia’s class action against the major tobacco manufacturers. I was one of the most…
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Trump’s Antitrust Gambit May Backfire
In March, one of the most important antitrust cases in recent memory went to trial. The Department of Justice and 39 states plus the District of Columbia had sued the ticketing-and-entertainment giant Live Nation, alleging that its 2010 merger with Ticketmaster had created an effective monopoly on l…
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Inside a Conservative Operation to Hijack Your Social-Media Feed
If you’re short on cash, there is someone in Riga, Latvia, who can help. “You can literally make 100k a month with this campaign,” a young man with blond curls and a thick accent says into a camera. All you have to do is post on social media video clips of “anything that supports Republican.” Unfami…
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AI Is Already Making Us Less Human
Many people think that AI is going to gain consciousness and take over the world, but I’ve never been among them. That’s mostly because I believe the human mind contains depths and complexities that AI and its engineers do not fathom and will never match. As the neuroscientist Anil Seth wrote earlie…