What Meta's $17 Billion Settlement Means for TikTok and YouTube

Meta reached a landmark settlement this week, agreeing to pay up to $17.1 billion and make major changes to Facebook and Instagram over claims it endangered children with addictive social media platforms. We discuss why Meta capitulated and what it means for the entire social media industry. Then, Princeton computer science professor Arvind Narayanan returns to offer his thoughts on why banning data centers won’t slow down A.I. progress. And finally, it’s all hats on deck for the final HatGPT. Guest: Arvind Narayanan, professor of computer science at Princeton, and co-author of the “A.I. as Normal Technology” newsletter. 00:00 Meta's massive legal settlement over social media addiction 23:00 Arvind Narayanan on data center bans 40:10 HatGPT! The wildest tech stories of the week Additional Reading Meta to Pay Up to $17.1 Billion in Landmark Settlement Over Social Media Addiction Claims https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/26/technology/meta-settlement-social-media-addiction-lawsuit.html Mark Zuckerberg Wants to Make Sure His Competitors Share His Pain https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/27/technology/meta-settlement-mark-zuckerberg-youtube-tiktok.html Arvind Narayanan’s Post About A.I. Data Centers https://x.com/random_walker/status/2091906235670925377 FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@hardfork Instagram: Kevin Roose - https://www.instagram.com/kevinroose/ Casey Newton - https://www.instagram.com/crumbler/ Twitter (X): Kevin - https://x.com/kevinroose Casey - https://x.com/CaseyNewton Threads: Kevin - https://www.threads.net/@kevinroose Casey - https://www.threads.net/@crumbler Subscribe to our podcast: Apple - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/hard-fork/id1528594034 Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/44fllCS2FTFr2x2kjP9xeT?si=86ba626802b849cd Amazon - https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/7c7fe198-e6a8-41a8-b0fe-1d46b976dcd8/hard-fork YouTube Music - https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLB9gMmtMLXxsa8C0PzHFL2tJFh7FrKrYD&si=Fwb9Uwon1ZneNsBp The New York Times - https://www.nytimes.com/column/hard-fork Credits “Hard Fork” is hosted by Kevin Roose and Casey Newton. Produced by Rachel Cohn and Whitney Jones. We’re edited by Vjeran Pavic. Engineering by Chris Wood and original music by Dan Powell, Marion Lozano, Sophia Lanman and Rowan Niemisto. Fact-checking by Caitlin Love. Video production by Chris Schodt and Sawyer Roque. Video QC by Isabella Anderson. Podcast Art Direction by Benjamin Wilkerson Tousley. Podcast Art & Animations by Julian Hespenheide. Additional Motion graphics by Phil Robibero. Thumbnails by Julia Moburg, Elizabeth Bristow, and Benjamin Wilkerson Tousley. Special thanks to Brooke Minters, Paula Szuchman, Pui-Wing Tam and Dahlia Haddad.