Meta settlement puts pressure on competitors

Meta settlement puts pressure on competitors

Meta’s settlement with nearly every state in the country is putting some of its biggest competitors on notice as the Instagram and Facebook parent firm tries to steer an industry standard on kids’ online safety.

After years of scrutiny, the company agreed to pay billions of dollars to states and make significant changes to better protect kids on its platforms, but not without putting the spotlight on competitors TikTok and YouTube to do the same.

In announcing the settlement, Meta published an open letter calling on YouTube and TikTok to “follow their lead,” arguing it is the way for “meaningful progress to happen. Full-page print advertisements on this letter are running in major newspapers throughout the weekend .

While the letter publicly calls out the company, multiple platform changes and monetary awards in the settlement are contingent on other platforms’ responses.

“If you are a target , you want to show that this is a much larger, insidious challenge, and that you are one of many and that you shouldn’t alone be called out,” Eric Schiffer, CEO of Patriarch Organization, a technology and media private equity firm.

“And in the process, you are ensuring that others may contribute financially, as well as influence resolving the matter as a whole,” Schiffer added, calling the move “strategically sound.”

The settlement allows Meta to position itself in the national kids’ online safety fight more favorably after being hammered by parents and lawmakers for years over its platforms’ impact on young users’ physical and mental health.

Welcome to The Hill’s Technology newsletter , we’re Julia Shapero and Miranda Nazzaro — tracking the latest moves from Capitol Hill to Silicon Valley.

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Appeals court rules states can regulate prediction markets like gambling

© Cheng Xin, Getty Images photo illustration

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled states on Friday can regulate prediction market platforms like gambling and sportsbooks, dealing a heavy blow to the industry.

In a unanimous ruling , a three-judge panel agreed with a lower court decision allowing Nevada gaming regulators to oversee the prediction market Kalshi, which argued only the federal government has the authority to regulate event contract platforms.

Specifically, Kalshi argues the sports event contracts offered by prediction markets are “swaps,” part of a designated contract market that fall under the jurisdiction of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

Friday’s opinion, written by Circuit Judge Ryan Nelson, said Kalshi did not show a “likelihood” the Commodity Exchanges Act (CEA) preempts state gaming regulations when it comes to sports event contracts. The CEA gives the CFTC the legal authority to regulate U.S. derivatives markets.

“However, under the CEA’s definition… the sports event contracts were not ‘swaps’ because they were sports bets,” Nelson wrote for the panel. “As to conflict preemption, the panel rejected Kalshi’s argument that it was impossible to comply with both Nevada law and the CEA, and that Nevada law posed an obstacle to the CEA’s purposes.”

Crypto Corner is a daily feature focused on digital currency and its outlook in Washington.

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