TikTok agreed to pay Alabama at least $100m and implement safety restrictions for teenage users, including two-hour daily time limits and age verification, in the first state settlement modeled on Meta's recent agreement. The deal avoids trial and could reach $300m if 40 other state attorneys general sign similar agreements. Alabama's lawsuit accused TikTok of misleading parents about child safety features and engineering the app to addict young users.
After Charlie Kirk's assassination reignited debate over punishing hate speech, the article explains why the U.S. lacks hate speech laws unlike most other countries. Civil rights groups like the NAACP and American Jewish Committee opposed such laws in the 1930s–1940s, fearing they could be weaponized against minority activists, and argued that countering hate speech through free speech and education was more effective than criminal prosecution.