Latest / The Breakfast Club / Meta Agrees to a Billion Settlement Over Teen Safety, the Atatiana Jefferson Family Gets an $11.25 Million Settlement from Fort Worth, and a Federal Judge Strikes Down the Texas Drag Show Law Again

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Meta Agrees to a Billion Settlement Over Teen Safety, the Atatiana Jefferson Family Gets an $11.25 Million Settlement from Fort Worth, and a Federal Judge Strikes Down the Texas Drag Show Law Again · The Breakfast Club

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Metta is paying billions of dollars to settle a lawsuit
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: over teen safety.
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: The real question here is why wasn't there even some
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: mild guardrails in place?
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: And nearly seven years after a Tatiana Jefferson was shot
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: and killed inside her own home in Fort Worth, her
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: family is getting millions in settlement.
• 0:24
  Speaker 3: I know that it'll help me keep going as well
• 0:27
  Speaker 3: in the process.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: And a federal judge says drag shows in Texas can resume.
• 0:33
  Speaker 4: The government does not have the free-roaming power under the
• 0:36
  Speaker 4: Constitution to simply restrict ideas or performances that it does
• 0:41
  Speaker 4: not like.
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: It's Thursday, August 27th. From the Black Effect Podcast Network,
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: I'm Mimi Brown, and here are the day's biggest stories.
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: Stay with me. Meta has agreed to pay up to
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: $ 16. 6 billion to settle a case that could reshape how
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: teenagers use Facebook and Instagram. 29 states sued Meta, accusing
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: the company of designing its platforms to hook kids, mislead
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: the public about how safe they were, and collecting personal
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: information from children under 13.
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: So here's a fun fact for you. So I've seen
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: in a couple of places, people said they didn't start
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: asking people how old they were till 2019. It turns
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: out for all those accounts that had been established in
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: the years before 2019, they never got around to asking
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: those accounts that already existed how old they were until 2021.
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: This is the kind of seriousness that they take to
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: these issues. They see how long they can get away
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: with bending the rules.
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: The settlement came Wednesday right in the middle of a
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: federal trial in Oakland, California. But here are the parts
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: that parents probably will notice. For users under 18, night
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: mode will block access from midnight to 6 a.m. Accounts
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: will default to a two-hour daily limit. Notifications will be
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: shut off during school hours. And after every 15 minutes
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: of continuous scrolling, teens will get a prompt interrupting them.
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: They also won't be able to see how many likes
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: their own posts receive. And cosmetic surgery and makeup filters
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: that reshape someone's face before they post a photo will
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: be removed for teen users. California Attorney General Rob Bonta
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: says the changes should take effect within months. Now about
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: that $ 16. 8 billion, Meta will pay states $ 12. 7 billion regardless.
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: Another $ 5. 3 billion is conditional. States get that money if
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: YouTube and TikTok adopt similar restrictions for teens. So essentially,
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: Meta is betting billions that it won't be the only
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: social media company forced to make these changes. And Wall
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: Street apparently liked the deal because what had potentially been
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: a much bigger financial threat now has a price tag.
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: Nearly seven years after Atatiana Jefferson was killed inside her home,
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: the city of Fort Worth has agreed to pay her
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: family $ 11. 5 million. The Fort Worth City Council unanimously approved
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: the settlement Tuesday. It still needs approval from a probate court.
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: Atatiana's sister, Ashley Carr, called the settlement a rare case
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: where a family received accountability, both criminally and civilly, after
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: losing a loved one to police violence.
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: She was an amazing person. She was an anime lover.
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: She loved gaming. She was in the choir in high
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: school and middle school and college. She was in the
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: band in high school and middle school. She was an
• 3:43
  Speaker 3: all-around wonderful person. Yes, she was my little sister, but
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: she came with a big force all the time.
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: For anyone who doesn't remember this case, here's what happened.
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: It was October of 2019. Atiana's neighbor called police because
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: he noticed her front door was open and wanted someone
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: to check on her. Officer Aaron Dean and another officer arrived.
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: They walked around the property but never identified themselves as police.
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: Atiana was inside playing video games with her nephew. She
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: heard someone outside, thought there might be a burglar, and
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: approached the window with her gun. Dean fired through the window,
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: killing her. Atiana Jefferson was 28 years old. Dean was
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: later convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to nearly 12 years
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: in prison. Atiana's nephew witnessed the shooting and previously received
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: a separate $ 3. 5 million settlement from the city. Now, nearly
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: seven years later, the rest of her family is one
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: step closer to resolving this case. And finally, a federal
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: judge in Texas has struck down its drag show law
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: for a second time. The law was passed in 2023
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: and restricted certain performances in public places or anywhere minors
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: might be present. Businesses could face fines of up to $ 10, 000.
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: Performers could face up to a year in jail. But
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: the U.S. District Judge David Hittner ruled Tuesday that the
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: law violates the First Amendment. And Hittner, who was appointed
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: to the federal bench by Ronald Reagan, has a pretty
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: simple message for people who don't like drag performances. Just
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: don't go. Hittner said the law was written so broadly
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: that it could potentially apply to things like cheerleading, dancing
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: and live theater. and then Dolly Parton entered the federal
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: court record. The judge wrote that even under the state's language,
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: even Dolly Parton potentially could be characterized as a sexual
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: performer because of her big hair, flamboyant clothes, and cleavage.
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: His point was simple. When you write a law this
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: broadly to target one type of performance, you risk sweeping
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: into a whole lot more.
• 5:57
  Speaker 4: Even like Shakespeare's plays, are in some sense erotic, but
• 6:01
  Speaker 4: of course they've been performed for high school audiences for
• 6:04
  Speaker 4: hundreds of years.
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: One of the plaintiffs in this case, Texas drag performer
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: Bridget Bandit, who happens to impersonate Dolly Parton, celebrated the
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: ruling online. Texas Attorney General Kim Paxson says he plans
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: to appeal. So this fight isn't over. But for now,
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: the law remains blocked, and Judge Hittner's six-word response may
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: end up being the line everyone remembers. which is the
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: solution is relatively simple. Just don't go. That's your front page.
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: I'm Mimi Brown. This podcast was brought to you by
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: the Black Effect Podcast Network.