Meta to Pay Up to $17.1 Billion Over Claims It Harmed Youths

August 27, 2026
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The social media giant behind Facebook and Instagram reached a landmark settlement today with dozens of U.S. states and territories that had accused it of harming children by designing its platforms to be addictive, like cigarettes. Meta, the parent company, agreed to pay up to $17.1 billion in penalties and make major changes to its products.

The financial cost is enormous, but it is unlikely to undermine the stability of the trillion-dollar company. Instead, the long-term effect of the settlement is more likely to be determined by the changes to the user experiences of Facebook and Instagram — some of which strike at the heart of Meta’s advertising model. Here’s what the company agreed to:

  • Teenagers will be limited to just two hours a day on its platforms, and blocked entirely between midnight and 6 a.m. Notifications will be silenced during school hours.

  • Every time a user under 18 is on Instagram or Facebook for 15 consecutive minutes, that person will receive a prompt on the screen.

  • The apps will limit or remove features that psychologists link to negative social comparisons, such as beauty filters and the tallying of “like” counts.

It is not yet clear how aggressively Meta will work to verify how old users are, a critical component in most of its changes. But if the new restrictions are effectively enforced, our tech reporter Mike Isaac told me, “it could have a dramatic impact on how young people use the largest social media platforms in the future.”

A wall of water and mud crashed through a Himalayan river valley between Nepal and the Chinese territory of Tibet today, destroying villages in its path. At least 160 people were killed and hundreds are missing, though the toll is expected to rise.

Surveillance footage verified by The Times showed crowds at the Gyirong Port border crossing running, before torrents of water and thick clouds engulfed the area.

Initial assessments indicate that an ice avalanche set off the flooding. A chunk of ice about 2,000 feet wide appears to have broken off from a glacier and tumbled thousands of feet toward a river in Nepal; the impact registered as the equivalent of a 5.2-magnitude earthquake. Warming temperatures caused by climate change may have accelerated the glacier’s collapse, scientists said.

The Food and Drug Administration announced today that it had approved a first-of-its-kind pill for treating advanced pancreatic cancer, a disease long considered one of the most hopeless in medicine.

The drug, taken in the form of two pills a day, has electrified cancer specialists and patients. It is not a cure, but it is the first treatment to substantially extend the lives of patients with pancreatic cancer.

The Small Business Administration has proposed vastly expanding the definition of small businesses to give much larger companies — including some earning as much as $1 billion a year or employing as many as 3,000 people — access to contracts, loans and other assistance. The Trump administration says the plan would allow the agency to continue supporting businesses as they grow.

Many business owners support some broadening of qualifications. But some are now raising alarms about the proposal because it would put tiny companies in direct competition with significantly larger rivals.

In other Trump administration news:

This question comes from a recent edition of the newsletter. Click an answer to see if you’re right.

John Ratcliffe, the director of the C.I.A., made a secret trip to which capital yesterday?

Starting next year, the role of Ron Weasley in Broadway’s “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” will be played by the man most associated with the character: Rupert Grint. Through all eight “Harry Potter” films, Grint played the young red-haired wizard — though this time he will play Weasley as an adult.

Grint’s Broadway stint will begin a month after Tom Felton, who as a child played Draco Malfoy in the films, concludes his 14-month run in the show. Felton’s tenure has hugely boosted ticket sales.

What if there was a single metric that could capture every aspect of your health — how strong you are, how clear your vision is, how sharply you think? That’s the goal of “intrinsic capacity.” It’s a holistic measurement of what someone’s body and mind are capable of, and it’s becoming a preferred way to assess the human aging process. Though, you can’t just ask your doctor to test your intrinsic capacity — at least not yet.

My colleague Dana Smith, a health reporter, explains how it works.

Dolly Parton, who died this week at 80, knew the power of being in on the joke. As she rose to fame through the 1970s and ’80s, she was frequently called tacky or gaudy. And countless comics had something to say about her fake hair and fake breasts and fake nails. But nothing compared with what Parton said about herself.

She used self-deprecation as a subversive trick, stepping on the punchlines of her critics. In one of her final public statements, Parton said: “As long as there are plastic surgeons in this world, I’m not getting any older.” That wit — along with her talent — helped make her almost universally beloved.

Have a cherished evening.

Thanks for reading. I’ll be back tomorrow — Matthew

Eli Cohen was our photo editor.

We welcome your feedback. Reach us at evening@nytimes.com.

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