Tech stocks today: Meta agrees to settle social media case for $16.68 billion

Meta (META) agreed to settle a social media addiction case with a group of state attorneys general on Wednesday, putting an end to the trial in its second week. The stock initially popped on the news before paring gains.The case revolved around allegations from 29 states that Instagram and Facebook developed products to hook young users on the platforms and harvested the data of children under 13 to their benefit.According to court filings, Meta denied wrongdoing and agreed to pay up to $16.68 billion.In a statement on the company's website, Meta said, "Ensuring teens have a safe and productive experience on our platforms is an absolute imperative for Meta. We want to get this right for parents and teens, and that's why we partnered with state attorneys general to set a new industry standard."According to DC Attorney General Brian L. Schwalb, these are among the safety features Meta has agreed to implement:Hard cap daily time limits and "Productive Pauses" for children on its two platforms, Instagram and Facebook. Meta will adopt a combined two-hour daily time limit with mandatory pauses after 15 minutes of continuous use and again at 60 and 90 minutes to interrupt endless scrolling. These limits remain in effect for five years. If Snapchat, TikTok, and YouTube adopt comparable terms, the daily limit on each platform will drop to 60 minutes for 10 years."Nighttime blocks" restricting children's access to feeds from 12:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m and silencing notifications from 10:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m.Limited school-time access for children, eliminating push notifications on weekdays from 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. during the school year.Strict age verification measures and safer, age-appropriate content controls, including stronger safeguards against bullying, content promoting eating disorders, and content related to suicide and self-harm.Stronger, more user-friendly parental controls.Limits on social comparison features, including beauty filters and visible "like" counts that have been linked to poor mental health outcomes for kids.Regular assessment by an independent auditor of the implementation and efficacy of the safety features, with oversight by the settling states.Nvidia earnings on tapMeta isn't the only tech giant making headlines. Another key moment for Wall Street is due to arrive after the bell on Wednesday: Nvidia's (NVDA) second quarter earnings.While its Big Tech peers reported their results nearly a month ago, Nvidia is finally giving us the lowdown on its latest quarter when it reports Q2 earnings after the close on Wednesday.For the quarter, Nvidia is expected to report second quarter adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of $2.09 on revenue of $92 billion, according to Bloomberg analyst consensus estimates. That would mark a 96% year-over-year jump in overall revenue, and a continued quarter-over-quarter acceleration.