Meta has agreed to pay billions and restrict how teenagers use Facebook and Instagram, settling claims that the platforms were designed to encourage addictive use.

The settlement could be worth approximately $18 billion and ends a federal trial brought by a bipartisan coalition of US attorneys general.

The agreements cover 47 states, Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico, American Samoa and the Northern Mariana Islands, including a separate agreement with Texas.

Meta says its total payment could reach approximately $18 billion. About $12.7 billion will be distributed over 10 years, while the remaining $5.3 billion is contingent on TikTok and YouTube adopting comparable protections and making matching payments.

The settlement was submitted to US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers and remains subject to court approval. The deal resolves allegations that Meta deliberately designed its platforms to encourage addictive use among young people, misled consumers about safety and collected data from children without proper parental consent.

Meta denies wrongdoing.

What changes for teen users

Under the agreement, users under 18 will face a default two-hour daily limit across Facebook and Instagram, which they can turn off only with a parent’s permission. The restrictions are expected to take effect within six months if the settlement receives court approval. Meta will also block most teen access from midnight to 6 a.m. and mute push notifications from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. during school hours, except for direct messages and account security or safety alerts.

Other changes include hidden like counts, blocks on cosmetic surgery and extreme makeup filters, options to disable autoplay and use a non-personalized feed, and prompts after 15 minutes of continuous use and at 60 and 90 minutes of daily use.

Meta also agreed to strengthen age-assurance technology, restrict age-inappropriate content and improve parental controls.

If TikTok and YouTube adopt comparable protections, Meta would reduce its daily limit to one hour per app and extend the overnight block to 10 p.m. through 7 a.m.

A costly deal with wider consequences

The settlement does not require Meta to abandon personalized recommendations or targeted advertising, Reuters reported. That leaves a central part of its engagement-driven business model intact.

Still, the financial and product changes could influence thousands of other lawsuits against Meta, TikTok, YouTube and Snap. Reuters reported that governments and private plaintiffs are pursuing claims alleging social media companies contributed to a youth mental health crisis.

The agreement could therefore become more than a costly settlement for Meta: it may establish a practical template for regulating how major social platforms design products for teenagers.

An independent auditor will review Meta’s compliance and the effectiveness of its safeguards, while a research foundation will use data from consenting users to study teen well-being. For technology companies, the settlement shows that youth safety is becoming a product-design and compliance requirement affecting age-assurance systems, recommendation features, notifications and parental controls — not simply a matter of updating privacy policies.

Read more: A recent New Mexico ruling ordered Meta to pay $567 million and overhaul teen protections on Facebook and Instagram, showing how courts are increasingly treating youth safety as a product-design and compliance issue.

A phone becomes expensive to own when a worn battery, cracked screen, or damaged charging port turns into a complicated repair.

In 2026, some manufacturers make those jobs considerably easier, but repairability still varies widely between models.

Fairphone has centered its phones on modular, owner-replaceable hardware for more than a decade. HMD has adopted similarly repair-friendly designs, while Apple and Google have made common repairs easier on some mainstream models.

For this comparison, we prioritized current phones with independent iFixit repairability scores, available parts or repair documentation, and practical access to components such as batteries, displays, and charging ports.

Most repairable phones at a glance

iFixit changes its scoring methodology over time, so the scores are useful indicators rather than perfectly standardized measurements across every phone generation.

Fairphone Gen. 6+ offers the most modular design

The Fairphone Gen. 6+ keeps the modular construction of the Gen. 6, which earned 10/10 in an iFixit teardown.

Owners can replace 12 modules, including the battery, display, cameras, and USB-C port. The battery and screen avoid adhesive, and Fairphone sells replacement parts directly.

The Gen. 6+ also carries a five-year warranty and software support through 2033. That combination addresses both sides of device longevity: replacing worn hardware and keeping the phone supported after the repair.

HMD Skyline also performs strongly on hardware repairability. iFixit gave it 9/10, citing its screw-assisted opening mechanism, replaceable display, accessible battery, and modular charging port.

Its shorter software-support period is the main trade-off. Buyers planning to keep a phone for several years should compare repairability with current software support windows before choosing a model.

iPhone 17e and Pixel 10 bring easier repairs to major brands

The iPhone 17e received a provisional 7/10 from iFixit. Its dual-entry design lets technicians reach internal components from either side, while Apple’s electrically releasable battery adhesive makes battery replacement easier.

Apple also publishes repair manuals and sells replacement parts. The USB-C port remains a more involved repair because several components must be removed to reach it.

Google’s Pixel 10 received a provisional 6/10. Its back panel can be removed without heat, battery removal is easier than on previous Pixels, and the USB-C board is replaceable.

The display still relies heavily on adhesive, limiting the Pixel’s score. Google offsets some of that hardware complexity with seven years of OS, security, and Pixel Drop updates.

Samsung’s self-repair program does not eliminate hardware complexity

Samsung’s US Self-Repair program provides genuine parts, tools, and documentation for supported Galaxy phones. One UI 9 is also making repair support easier to access from the device.

Recent Galaxy hardware remains more difficult to work on than the highest-scoring phones in this comparison. The Galaxy S25 Edge received a provisional 5/10 from iFixit despite improvements to battery removal and a modular USB-C port.

Its display and back cover still rely heavily on adhesive. Samsung therefore offers stronger access to DIY repair resources than its hardware repairability score alone might suggest.

An independent iFixit score for the Galaxy S26 series was not available when this article was written, so we have not ranked those models alongside independently tested phones.

Which repairable phone should you buy?

The Fairphone Gen. 6+ offers the most repair-friendly hardware in this group, with 12 replaceable modules, readily available spare parts, and software support through 2033.

HMD Skyline provides similarly accessible hardware but a shorter software-support period. The iPhone 17e is the strongest option here for Apple buyers, while Pixel 10 combines improved repair access with seven years of updates.

For long-term ownership, we recommend checking four things before buying: whether the battery and display can be replaced without excessive adhesive, whether high-wear components such as the charging port are modular, whether spare parts and manuals are available, and how long software updates will continue.

Also read: Samsung is reportedly exploring self-healing display glass for the Galaxy S27 Ultra, which could reduce surface damage without necessarily making the phone easier to repair.

A supposed expert institute publishing academic-looking research was actually part of a covert influence operation supported by ChatGPT, according to OpenAI.

The company said Tuesday it banned a cluster of accounts originating in Russia that were used to promote the International Burke Institute, a self-described Israel-based expert community. OpenAI’s investigation uncovered copied academic research, misleading author attributions and a “sovereignty index” that portrayed Russia favorably while criticizing Western governments.

The operation shows how generative AI can support more than mass-produced social posts. It can also help operators build the surrounding infrastructure — research, branding and coordinated accounts — needed to make an influence campaign look more legitimate.

A fake institution with real-looking research

The operation centered on the International Burke Institute, whose website was registered in February 2025 and presented itself as an Israel-based “expert community.”

OpenAI reviewed 36 articles published on the site between September 2025 and May 2026 and found that 34 appeared to have been copied from elsewhere, sometimes with incorrect authors. One article on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, for example, appeared to originate from Cambridge University Press but was attributed to a different academic.

The site also claimed connections to prominent figures including Francis Fukuyama and Noam Chomsky, according to OpenAI.

The institute’s most distinctive feature was its “sovereignty index,” which rated countries across political, economic, technological, information, cultural, cognitive and military measures. OpenAI said the index was used to praise Russia and attack Western governments.

Must-read security coverage

AI was the amplifier, not the whole operation

The ChatGPT accounts generated promotional posts and replies designed to push people toward IBI content. One operator also produced German-language material for a Telegram channel called “Lahme Ente,” which criticized Ukraine, the EU and Germany while advocating closer relations with Russia.

Another created logos for about a dozen Telegram channels focused on countries including Germany, the U.S., France, Poland and Türkiye and used ChatGPT to summarize their activity in Russian.

OpenAI said the campaign’s immediate reach was modest. Most posts received few views, while the associated Telegram channels generally had 10,000 to 20,000 followers each.

That limited reach does not make the operation insignificant. The more important development is the way AI was used as one component of a larger credibility-building system. OpenAI said, “The significance of the operation lies less in the audience it reached, however, than in the infrastructure it had built.”

That distinction matters for platforms, businesses and consumers. Generating a convincing post is increasingly easy; building an apparently independent institution around that content could also make coordinated messaging look more credible and therefore harder for users to recognize as part of an influence operation.

OpenAI said activity involving ChatGPT also gave investigators signals that helped connect parts of the wider campaign. That creates an unusual dynamic for influence operators: the same AI tools that make coordinated activity easier to scale can also leave patterns that platforms can use to uncover it.

More news: Microsoft Teams is rolling out a new policy that lets IT administrators automatically block detected external meeting bots, giving organizations more control over third-party AI assistants in sensitive calls.