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FTC and 22 States Sue Amazon Over Advertising Practices

Regulators say the e-commerce giant forced more than a million advertisers to pay more than they should have. The company denies the claims.

© Vincent Alban/The New York Times

The Federal Trade Commission and the states said Amazon misled brands and sellers into paying more for ads; the company is denying the accusations.
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Judge Rules Trump Unlawfully Targeted Stanford Students Who Criticized Israel

The ruling was a win for Stanford’s student newspaper, The Stanford Daily, and it followed another court victory for students targeted by the Trump administration last year.

© Jim Wilson/The New York Times

A lawsuit argued that student journalists had been forced to self-censor out of fear of government retaliation.
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How Meta’s $17.1 Billion Social Media Settlement Came Together

State attorneys general spent months in negotiations. Then, as its legal losses mounted, the social media giant’s new top lawyer brought a huge settlement to the table.

© Jason Henry for The New York Times

Meta’s $17.1 billion agreement with states followed losses in court over claims that the social media is addictive and harmful to children.
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Trump Administration Asks Supreme Court to Uphold Ban on Transgender Troops

President Trump issued an executive order barring transgender service members from the military as part of a broader attack on transgender rights.

© Allison Robbert for The New York Times

If the justices accept the case, they could schedule oral arguments during the Supreme Court’s term that begins in October.
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Social Media and the Myth of the Big Tobacco Moment

Smoking used to be everywhere, the way Facebook, TikTok, Snap, YouTube and Instagram are now. Society decided to break the habit, but it took a long time.

© Jason Henry for The New York Times

Meta will pay up to $17.1 billion over a decade and make changes to its social media properties to make them less compulsive for young people.
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Trump Administration’s Blacklisting of Anthropic Was Illegal, Judge Rules

The government retaliated against the A.I. start-up “for constitutionally protected expressive activities,” a federal judge in California wrote.

© Karsten Moran for The New York Times

Anthropic, led by Dario Amodei, was barred from government work after it insisted that its technology not be used in mass surveillance of Americans or for autonomous lethal weapons.
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“Anxious Generation” Author Jonathan Haidt on the Meta Settlement

In “The Anxious Generation,” he laid out the evils of social media for kids. The landmark Meta settlement seems to agree.

© Lila Barth for The New York Times

Jonathan Haidt’s 2024 book on the harms to children from social media was a best seller.
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ICE agent Christian Castro Released From Texas Jail After Minnesota Loses Court Fight

The state had sought to have the agent extradited from Texas to answer charges in Minneapolis related to an on-duty shooting that wounded an immigrant.

© David Guttenfelder/The New York Times

Christian Castro was one of thousands of agents sent to Minnesota in the winter as part of the Trump administration’s deportation campaign.
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Did Meta’s Big Settlement Actually Help It?

The tech giant’s landmark deal with states over teen use of social media may cost the company less than expected. It may hurt rivals more.

© Josh Edelson/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Shares in Meta rose yesterday after the social media giant announced a landmark legal settlement.
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Mark Zuckerberg Wants to Make Sure YouTube and TikTok Share His Pain

Meta, the social media giant, agreed to change the way children interact with its apps. That could be trouble if its competitors don’t abide by the same rules.

© Anna Barclay/Getty Images

To settle the suits, Meta agreed to drastically rein in children’s’ access to marquee products like Instagram and Facebook.
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