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META Settlement - TPR's In Focus - August 28, 2026 · In Focus with Carolyn Hutcheson

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  Support comes from the Rosa Parks Museum on Troy University's
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  Montgomery campus, located on the spot of Mrs.
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  Parks' historic 1955 arrest and featuring exhibits
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  that chronicle the history of the Montgomery bus boycott.
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  More information at troy.edu/rosaparks.
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  From Troy Public Radio, this is the
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  News Wrap from InFocus. I'm Kyle Gassiott sitting in for Carolyn Hutcheson.
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  And joining us, as he always does every Friday, is Todd Stacy,
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  the host of Alabama Public Television's Capitol Journal.
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  He's here with a little bit of news and a wild card. Hey,
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  Todd, how's it going? Great, Kyle. How are you? I'm all right.
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  And I am ready for some news. So what do you have for us?
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  Well, the big news this week is not just in Alabama, but nationwide.
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  And that is that Meta, that's the parent company of Facebook and
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  Instagram, has agreed to a settlement, a nationwide settlement
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  of about $18 billion. That's massive.
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  That's oil spill massive. And what is this about?
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  It's about social media's harms to
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  teenagers. We know, and it's really been proven, that as
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  teenagers spend so much time online, so much time
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  on Facebook or Instagram, other places,
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  we know that it's been a problem. And so
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  I think it was 48 states filed suit,
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  and so this is a multi-state settlement.
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  Alabama's take of that is $117 million.
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  Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall announced that this week.
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  And so that's going to be paid over time, but $117
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  million is a lot of money for a state like Alabama,
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  especially when it comes to, you know, this is above what is already budgeted
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  for. And so the question now becomes, what will the
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  state use that money for? Obviously, think back
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  to the opioid settlement where a lot of that money went to mental
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  health and efforts to get
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  folks off of opioids and things like that. I would expect a similar thing
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  here, you know, expect this money to be spent toward encouraging
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  young people to not spend so much time online.
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  You know, Todd, I'd heard a lot in the news this week comparing this case
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  to tobacco cases in the past and cigarette cases in particular
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  and how they were targeted at young people. Absolutely. And I think the big through
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  line is if you go back to those big tobacco cases,
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  they knew, right? The executives knew that the
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  product was addictive. And so it became evident through various
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  trials. And the same thing goes here, right?
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  Well, what the government was trying to prove, and I think has,
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  that these social media companies, they know, they get it. They,
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  they're the smartest ones about their products.
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  They know how addictive it is. They know the damage it can do.
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  Well, I imagine you're going to be talking about this on Capitol Journal tonight and
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  on Sunday. Who's going to be joining you? We are.
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  In fact, I'm going to be joined by US Senator Katie Britt, and she's been
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  pretty outspoken about social media policy.
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  She's, she's had legislation at the federal level to rein in some
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  of this stuff. Obviously, she's a mother of,
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  you know, high school-aged students, so she knows all about its
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  impact. So I'll be curious to ask her about that. Of course, there's many other
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  issues I want to talk to the senator about— the Russia sanctions bill that
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  she has championed, her you know, partnership with the late
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  Senator Lindsey Graham on that. Well, Todd, you have to
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  have a wild card for us. What do you got? Got a wild card,
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  even though I'm reluctant here because I don't like snakes
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  and I figure a lot of folks don't. But this,
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  this high school football player in Arkansas was wearing
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  his helmet at practice and
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  he knew something wasn't right. Kept complaining about his helmet.
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  They took his helmet off and discovered A 2-foot-long
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  cottonmouth snake had curled up inside
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  the lining. And is— I mean, that is just terrifying.
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  Most of the time we laugh at these wildcards. This is, this is terrifying.
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  And it wasn't a rat snake. This is a cottonmouth. Come on. They got
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  him out of the helmet. Nobody was hurt. I'm not sure I would ever put
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  on another helmet if that was me, but yeah. Me either. Me either.
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  Well, Todd, thank you as always for joining us every week here on Troy Public
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  Radio. We really appreciate it. Thank you.
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  On her way to work one morning. That was Todd Stacy,
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  the host of Alabama Public Television's Capitol Journal, which you can see
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  tonight on Alabama Public Television and at noon on
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  Sunday. You can also catch it on their YouTube channel.
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  I'm Kyle Gassiott sitting in for Carolyn Hutcheson. And this
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  is In Focus, which is also a podcast wherever you
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  get your podcasts. Right here on listener-supported Troy Public Radio.
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  You can reach out to us at infocus@troy.edu,
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  and we hope you have a great weekend. This is Troy Public Radio.