One of the left’s worst ideas is, and always has been, the idea that black Americans are owed financial reparations for slavery. Claiming that people who never committed historical atrocities should pay people who never suffered atrocities, all in the name of so-called justice, is absurd. That argument has always...

Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta has agreed to a midnight cutoff for teenage Facebook and Instagram users as part of state settlements worth up to approximately $18 billion. That is a big concession from a company whose platforms can make one more minute of scrolling turn into another hour. But parents should know what they are getting. The restrictions have exceptions, the rollout is not instantaneous, and billions of dollars depend on what other tech companies do next. New Hampshire Governor Kelly Ayotte welcomed the agreement Thursday: Meta and other social media companies have used their algorithms and platforms for profit to the detriment of a generation of children. New Hampshire secured a settlement that will help hold them accountable and ensure our kids are protected online. pic.twitter.com/60k65wwKNI — Governor Kelly Ayotte (@KellyAyotte) August 27, 2026 In its updated announcement, Meta confirmed the judge’s approval and described approximately $18 billion in payments across the participating jurisdictions. The company says the money will arrive in annual installments over a decade, with about $12.7 billion allocated over that period. Another roughly $5.3 billion is conditional. Meta says that portion depends on YouTube and TikTok adopting specified protections and making payments tied to the agreement’s formula, so the headline total is not an unconditional check. The company’s position is that teens move between apps, making common rules necessary. Its daily time limit and nighttime restrictions start with a five-year commitment, while most other terms run for 10 years. If the industry conditions are met, the time controls become stricter and last longer. Meta describes a one-hour limit per app and an expanded nighttime block running from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. The immediate changes are substantial enough without overselling them. The Tennessee Attorney General’s Office laid out the initial requirements: a combined two-hour daily limit across Facebook and Instagram, a default midnight-to-6 a.m. nighttime block, and restrictions on school-hour notifications. That is two hours across both platforms, not two hours on each. The agreement also calls for interruptions during extended use, stronger age checks, more accessible parental controls, and restrictions on visible like counts and certain beauty filters. The states are targeting features they say can keep children engaged at the expense of their well-being. Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti said Tennessee’s trial and the federal litigation helped drive the negotiations. His office traced the multistate investigation back to 2021. The states accused Meta of designing addictive features and misleading parents about the risks. Meta denies wrongdoing, and settling those accusations is not the same thing as admitting them. There is also a difference between a curfew on the feed and a phone that goes silent at midnight. The agreement published by the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office allows a supervising parent to approve less restrictive settings. Teens cannot simply turn down the protections on their own, but these are defaults with parental controls, not an absolute ban that overrides the family. Direct messaging is exempt from the time controls, and the daily cap also excludes qualifying long-form audio or video. The document defines that content as at least 22 minutes long and says artificially padded videos do not qualify. The rollout has deadlines rather than an overnight switch. The general compliance date is six months after the agreement’s effective date, although some provisions have their own schedules. School mode suppresses most notifications during defined school hours while preserving exceptions for messages, security and platform integrity. Those details matter for any parent expecting a two-hour limit to cover every minute their child spends inside the apps. Not every state thinks the deal goes far enough. Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier (R) wants to extract far more money from Meta Platforms Inc. than the state would have received in this week’s landmark $18 billion settlement over features that allegedly addict children. https://t.co/JoTDdkJJXb — Bloomberg Law (@BLaw) August 27, 2026 Bloomberg Law reported Thursday that Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier wants a much larger payment than Florida would have received under the settlement. At a press conference in The Villages, he argued that the amount would not impose enough financial pressure on Meta. He compared the agreement with the states’ $206 billion tobacco settlement and pointed to New Mexico’s separate litigation, which produced rulings worth more than $900 million. Florida has a far larger population, he noted. Florida did not join this agreement and is continuing its own case. Uthmeier’s position is that the size of the company demands a stronger financial consequence. That leaves Meta facing a separate courtroom fight even as it resolves claims elsewhere. For families, a settlement headline is not a declaration that every dispute over these platforms has ended. And a company-by-company settlement still leaves a question for Congress. This settlement proves what we’ve said for years. Big Tech prioritizes profit over our kids’ safety, and it’s time for Congress to pass the Kids Online Safety Act to finally hold these companies accountable and protect the next generation.https://t.co/Jfao1Bk2xo — Sen. Marsha Blackburn (@MarshaBlackburn) August 26, 2026 In a joint statement, Senator Marsha Blackburn and Senator Richard Blumenthal called the agreement a first step and urged lawmakers to pass the Kids Online Safety Act before year’s end. Their concern is that temporary settlement terms cannot guarantee permanent protections across the industry. The senators welcomed the product changes while arguing that children need safeguards beyond Instagram and Facebook. A restriction on one company’s feed does not establish the same restriction on a competitor’s app. Their office said the legislation had 75 co-sponsors and noted that the Senate approved it 91-3 in the previous Congress. That earlier vote was not enactment into law. Parents have heard plenty of promises about online safety. The test now is whether these controls work on the accounts their kids actually use, whether the exceptions swallow the limits, and whether the states enforce the commitments they negotiated. A settlement can put rules on paper. Making them work is the part that counts. This is a Guest Post from our friends over at WLTReport. View the original article here. The post Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta Agrees to Teen Curfew in Deal Worth Up to $18 Billion appeared first on 100PercentFedUp.com.

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) announced on Wednesday that he would be investigating Flock Safety cameras and who has access to the data. “Americans do not surrender their privacy rights when they drive to work, drop their kids off at school, or go to church,” Hawley said. “I’m investigating Flock cameras to determine WHO has access to hundreds of millions of Americans’ data – and what they’re doing with it,” he added. In a letter to Flock Safety, Hawley asked the company to “produce all documents and information” about its data retention policies, surveillance capabilities, and police departments’ misuse of its technology. Americans do not surrender their privacy rights when they drive to work, drop their kids off at school, or go to church. I’m investigating Flock cameras to determine WHO has access to hundreds of millions of Americans’ data – and what they’re doing with it pic.twitter.com/NsycLJaMMA — Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) August 26, 2026 Full letter below: “Flock has assembled an unprecedented national surveillance network. They boast more than 120,000 cameras across 49 states and more than 20 billion vehicle scans every month,” Hawley said. “Americans deserve answers,” he added. Americans deserve answers — Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) August 26, 2026 POLITICO shared further: Flock Safety said it received the letter. “We will be responding directly to the questions raised and we look forward to working with Senator Hawley and the Subcommittee to provide additional context about how our technology works, the safeguards built into our platform, and how law enforcement agencies use Flock to solve crime and find missing people,” company spokesperson Paris Lewbel said in a statement to POLITICO. “STOP FLOCK. STOP AI MASS SURVEILLANCE,” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) said. “Totalitarianism is when a government or another entity with overwhelming power seeks to know, control and influence everything you do, say and even think. I fear very much that if we don’t act aggressively, that is where we’re heading. You may not know it, but you may already be being tracked by artificial intelligence. Flock, a surveillance company backed by Big Tech oligarchs like Marc Andreessen and Peter Thiel, has installed more than 120,000 AI-powered surveillance cameras across America. These AI cameras scan and record 20 BILLION vehicles every month across more than 6,000 communities,” Sanders explained. “What does that mean for you? It means that if Flock is in your community, every time you leave your house, a Flock camera records and tracks you. If you are dropping your kids off at school, Flock knows. If you are going to a doctor, Flock knows. If you are going out on a date, Flock knows. And that’s not all. Newer Flock cameras do not just record vehicles. They record people. Flock’s AI system can combine images of you and your vehicle with databases of phone numbers, relatives and court records to find out who you are, where you’re going and why,” he continued. “In my view, this raises some very fundamental questions. Do we want to live in an America where AI companies like Flock can work with the government to track our every movement? Do we want to live in an America where our privacy rights and civil liberties — enshrined in the Constitution — are traded away so that AI oligarchs can collect more information, and increase their profits even more? The answer must be NO. We cannot allow America to become a surveillance state where a handful of AI oligarchs profit by giving the government the power to track our every movement. We must come together to stop Flock and AI mass surveillance. That is why I will soon be introducing legislation to do just that,” he added. STOP FLOCK. STOP AI MASS SURVEILLANCE. Totalitarianism is when a government or another entity with overwhelming power seeks to know, control and influence everything you do, say and even think. I fear very much that if we don't act aggressively, that is where we’re heading.… — Sen. Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) August 26, 2026 More from Courthouse News Service: Flock, founded in 2017, sells its services to law enforcement and other community groups and markets its technology as a boon to crime prevention and criminal investigation. The company is valued at more than $7 billion and was initially backed in part by conservative venture capitalist Peter Thiel. The post Republican Senator Announces Probe Into Flock Cameras appeared first on 100PercentFedUp.com.

President Trump on Thursday signed an executive order to change the name of Lake Ontario to “Lake America.” “We’re going to be changing the name of Lake Ontario, effective immediately, to Lake America,” Trump said. The executive order comes amid an escalating trade war between the United States and Canada. “THEY NEED US” – President Trump Announces Tariff Increases On Canada "We're going to be doing tariffs on their cars that are coming in at a substantial level, because we want to make the cars here," Trump said. "The lake change, Lake of America, was something I've been thinking about for a long time," he added. Watch below: BREAKING: President Trump officially changes the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America. "If you think about it, we have a gulf and we have a lake. Now, all we need is an ocean."