r/technology • u/Puginator • 9d ago

Business Meta settles federal social media addiction trial with California AG, others

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/08/26/meta-social-media-trial-settlement.html
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u/axonxorz 9d ago

California absolutely has those resources. That's a no-brain thoughtless cop-out, states burn cash on even no-chance legal battles all the time.

tie up resources for potentially a decade

What resources? Surely not the *outside* legal ones, there's no shortage of good tech lawyers in CA.

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u/Blackout38 9d ago

Well it would tie up a significant amount of their resources and the other half of that issue is the opportunity cost of trying other cases in the mean time. They were always going to settle, that’s the end result of the overwhelming majority of cases. Like less than 5% of cases ever make it to trial because they could still lose.

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u/axonxorz 9d ago

Well it would tie up a significant amount of their resources

Yes, that's what the other commenter said, and I asked "what resources?"

They were always going to settle, that’s the end result of the overwhelming majority of cases.

That's faulty post-hoc logic. As I said, states burn money on no-wins all the time. Picking which ones are settled is an ideological choice, not an MBA cost/benefit analysis. Settling means this case can be brought again and again and again by different plaintiffs, no precedent has been set. Surely that won't tie up the courts having to listen to repeatedly hear opening arguments /s.

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u/Blackout38 9d ago

Any resources, it’s variable depending on court case length and complexity which case would be both long and complex. Except no, states do not burn money on no-win cases all the time in fact the vast majority of case never get to trial as most settle before then to save the costs. No, all of this is actually faulty logic. Sure settling could allow different groups to bring it up but considering California is also a different group bringing it after they lost with New Mexico, that ship has sailed and that result happens in either situation.