Meta agrees to $1.4 billion settlement with Texas
The parent company of Facebook and Instagram stands accused of using facial identification software without users' permission
What happened
Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and other popular social networks, agreed on Tuesday to pay $1.4 billion to settle a lawsuit from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton over the company's since-discontinued use of facial recognition software that collected users' data without permission.
Who said what
The "historic settlement" shows Texas' "commitment to standing up to the world's biggest technology companies and holding them accountable for breaking the law and violating Texans' privacy rights," Paxton said in a statement. Meta is "pleased to resolve this matter" and looks forward to "exploring future opportunities to deepen our business investments in Texas, including potentially developing data centers," said a company spokesperson to Politico.
What next?
Meta is currently facing multiple lawsuits from various states over its products' allegedly harmful effects on children. Paxton's office is moving forward with a similar biometric-based lawsuit against Google's parent company, Alphabet.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
ICE’s facial scanning is the tip of the surveillance icebergIN THE SPOTLIGHT Federal troops are increasingly turning to high-tech tracking tools that push the boundaries of personal privacy
-
‘My donation felt like a rejection of the day’s politics’Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
Trump wants a weaker dollar but economists aren’t so sureTalking Points A weaker dollar can make imports more expensive but also boost gold
-
Will AI kill the smartphone?In The Spotlight OpenAI and Meta want to unseat the ‘Lennon and McCartney’ of the gadget era
-
Claude Code: Anthropic’s wildly popular AI coding appThe Explainer Engineers and noncoders alike are helping the app go viral
-
TikTok finalizes deal creating US versionSpeed Read The deal comes after tense back-and-forth negotiations
-
Is social media over?Today’s Big Question We may look back on 2025 as the moment social media jumped the shark
-
AI griefbots create a computerized afterlifeUnder the Radar Some say the machines help people mourn; others are skeptical
-
Metaverse: Zuckerberg quits his virtual obsessionFeature The tech mogul’s vision for virtual worlds inhabited by millions of users was clearly a flop
-
Facial recognition: a revolution in policingTalking Point All 43 police forces in England and Wales are set to be granted access, with those against calling for increasing safeguards on the technology
-
Has Google burst the Nvidia bubble?Today’s Big Question The world’s most valuable company faces a challenge from Google, as companies eye up ‘more specialised’ and ‘less power-hungry’ alternatives
