Omidyar Network Statement on Settlement in Meta Trial on Social Media Harms

CEO Michele L. Jawando released the following statement in response to the landmark settlement with 51 Attorneys General representing 47 states, the District of Columbia, and U.S. territories.

“For years, parents and young people have been standing up—in statehouses, in courtrooms, and in front of cameras—to say what was happening to kids online was not okay. Many of them relived the worst days of their lives, in public, just to be heard. Today belongs to them,” said Omidyar Network CEO Michele L. Jawando.

“This settlement requires Meta to make real changes that families, and the organizations standing with them, have been demanding for years, including daily limits, no notifications during the school day, and an independent auditor checking the work. As the evidence showed, Meta knew that commonsense safeguards like these would help protect kids, but did not put them in place.

“This milestone is a critical first step, but it is still one company under one settlement. Every other platform our kids use, and every AI chatbot and companion they’re already talking to, is operating without these rules. We need strong, nationwide design standards that apply to every company and every product, so accountability doesn’t only arrive after the harm is done.

“We’re grateful to the coalition of attorneys general who carried this case, and most of all to the families and young people who refused to be quiet. They turned private grief into public change. Our hope is simple: technology that connects kids without extracting from them. That’s what it looks like when families have a real say in how technology gets designed, built, and deployed.”

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About Omidyar Network 
Omidyar Network is a philanthropic organization with a mission to bend the arc of the digital revolution toward shared power, prosperity, and possibility. We invest in and collaborate with some of the world’s brightest visionaries and ventures to guide our digital future toward the greatest good for the greatest number of people.