Meareg filed the lawsuit in 2022. He said he repeatedly asked Facebook<\/a> to remove the posts and the company did nothing. Nearly four years later, the case has still not been heard. Foxglove said Meta, Facebook\u2019s parent company, had \u201cfought tooth and nail to avoid responsibility\u201d.<\/p>\n Meareg said: \u201cIt\u2019s a matter of numbers to them, a matter of statistics. It has been proven multiple times that our lives do not matter to them.\u201d<\/p>\n On Wednesday, Meta settled a lawsuit brought by 29 US states who argued it had designed addictive products that hooked young people. The social media company agreed to pay $18bn<\/a> and to change certain features of its platform in the US. California\u2019s attorney general said it was a victory that would make \u201ca world of difference for children and their families\u201d.<\/p>\n But elsewhere in the world, in jurisdictions as far flung as Amsterdam and Nairobi, other claims have yet to be heard. Far bigger questions about the power of a single US technology company to shape politics and democracy everywhere on Earth are still to be answered.<\/p>\n For the US, the settlement is a victory. A jury has done what the US Congress could not \u2013 put controls on a powerful tech company. As a part of the settlement, Meta<\/a> has said it will set time limits on children\u2019s use of its platforms Facebook and Instagram and block night-time usage.<\/p>\n For Meta, the settlement is also a victory. Its share price rose in the hours after the deal was announced. Its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, was not forced to testify. The sum it is to pay, while not meaningless, is far less than the states had sought<\/a> \u2013 $200bn \u2013 or the amount Meta itself had suggested in a court filing it might have to pay, which was up to $1.4tn.<\/p>\n Meta\u2019s headquarters in Menlo Park, California. Photograph: Bloomberg\/Getty Images<\/p>\n For the rest of the world, however, the picture is more mixed. The limits Meta will put on its US platform are, in large part, similar to limits the UK and Australia have already achieved through regulation. There are certain concessions Meta has now made that other governments could also demand: for example, while the UK plans to ban under-16s from social media platforms, it may wish to ask Meta to impose a default daily use limit of two hours for under-18s, which is what the company has agreed to in the US.<\/p>\n None of this meaningfully changes the equation for Meareg or what his case represents, which is that a massive US company, unaccountable to voters, unbound by transparency requirements, owns a worldwide digital commons that shapes reality for billions of people.<\/p>\n Whether courts and governments outside the US have the power to confront this fact is a far thornier question.<\/p>\n The central issue of Meareg\u2019s case is Meta\u2019s algorithm. This is the system that decides what content to show users of Facebook and Instagram. It sees you linger over a video about knitting sweaters, for example, and then decides you\u2019ll like one about how to care for your spider plant.<\/p>\n It sees teenage girls watch diet content and shows them anorexia influencers<\/a>. It sees young men search for bodybuilding content and shows them Andrew Tate<\/a>. It is alleged to have amplified content<\/a> that promoted the ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya in Myanmar. It contributed<\/a> to the election victory of Donald Trump.<\/p>\n Meareg\u2019s lawsuit rests on the claim that this algorithm promoted the posts that called for the death of his father, and that Facebook\u2019s sparse moderation in east Africa<\/a> did almost nothing to prevent this.<\/p>\n In the early days of the Meta trial in the US, it seemed plausible that states would push the social media firm to finally make some changes<\/a> to this algorithm. Those changes had the potential to fundamentally alter how the company does business. Meta\u2019s algorithm is intended to keep users scrolling, stuck on the platform, and then it shows them ads.<\/p>\n But that is not what appears to have happened. The terms of the settlement will slightly change what is shown to minors, in that they will not necessarily have personalised feeds<\/a>. But it is hard to see this concession changing the equation in war zones or creaking democracies.<\/p>\n Arturo B\u00e9jar, an ex-Facebook employee and whistleblower<\/a>, said the limitations were \u201cthe equivalent of saying: \u2018Well, you can smoke as many cigarettes as you can in two hours a day.\u2019 It doesn\u2019t make the cigarettes any safer.\u201d<\/p>\n It may be up to groups and individuals elsewhere in the world to try to push for these larger changes. It will be an uphill struggle.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n Sign up to TechScape<\/p>\n A weekly dive in to how technology is shaping our lives<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Protests in Malaysia in 2012 against the persecution of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar. Meta was alleged in a lawsuit to have amplified content that promoted the ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya. Photograph: Mohd Rasfan\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n In Kenya, the high court recently ruled that Meareg\u2019s case against Meta could go ahead, after years of legal manoeuvring from the company to try to prevent it. It could now be heard in the next year.<\/p>\n Rosa Curling, Foxglove\u2019s co-executive director, said: \u201cMeta\u2019s lawyers have spent years trying to prevent this important case being heard, thankfully without success. We hope that the news from the US is a sign that Mark Zuckerberg\u2019s time is finally up.\u201d<\/p>\n In the Netherlands, Repro Uncensored, a nonprofit organisation tracking digital censorship, hailed the US settlement as a \u201cmajor victory\u201d. Repro Uncensored has an ongoing legal case against Meta in the Netherlands for alleged discrimination against queer accounts<\/a>, and plans further action in other European countries.<\/p>\n Martha Dimitratou, Repro Uncensored\u2019s executive director, said: \u201cThe next stage of accountability must address not only addictive design but algorithms, discriminatory moderation and automated decision-making. These systems shape civic participation and democracy, and the companies controlling them must be held accountable globally.\u201d<\/p>\n The European Commission released a charge sheet against Meta this summer<\/a> saying the company\u2019s features, including its infinite scroll, contributed to \u201cunhealthy habits and compulsive use\u201d.<\/p>\n That charge sheet is part of an investigation into Meta that the commission launched in 2024. It may lead to Europe pushing for larger changes from Meta, including to its personal algorithm.<\/p>\n It is unclear whether any of these groups or parties can succeed. Meta appears to fear US regulators and courts: after all, it caved after just four days of its US trial. It does not appear to be as intimidated by regulators elsewhere.<\/p>\n Earlier this year it managed<\/a> to dodge<\/a> a class-action lawsuit brought by a group of Rohingya refugees over its alleged role in contributing to a genocide in Myanmar. It will have the help of the Trump administration in opposing any EU regulation that could curb its reach in Europe.<\/p>\n Meta declined to respond to questions about either Meareg\u2019s or Repro Uncensored\u2019s cases. In an earlier response to whistleblower allegations that it fuelled violence in Ethiopia and Myanmar, it pushed back forcefully<\/a>, saying it was \u201cjust not true\u201d that the company put profits over safety. Regarding Meareg\u2019s case, it has said<\/a> it employs staff with local knowledge and expertise to \u201ccatch violating content\u201d in Ethiopia.<\/p>\n Meareg said he believed that Meta expected him to give up. \u201cThey don\u2019t know how I am determined for justice,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is the thing you do for the person you love. If you love someone \u2013 and I loved my dad from my heart \u2013 then he needs justice. He needs a public apology. There has to be accountability.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In October 2021, Abrham Meareg\u2019s father, a professor of chemistry in Ethiopia\u2019s northern town of Bahir Dar, was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":752216,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[84,59,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-752215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-gb","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/752215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=752215"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/752215\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/752216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=752215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=752215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=752215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/500.jpg\")
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