Meta Platforms, Inc.

1. Who They Are

Meta Platforms, Inc. (Nasdaq: META), headquartered in Menlo Park, California, operates Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger and Threads, reaching more than three billion people. Its chairman, CEO and controlling shareholder is Mark Zuckerberg. Meta's revenue model is surveillance advertising: the systematic collection and monetization of personal behavioral data.

2. What the Book Documents

No Ethics in Big Tech (2026) addresses Meta principally in Chapter Eight ("The Invisible Workforce"), Chapter Eleven ("The Algorithm Against Our Children"), and Chapter Nine ("The Digital Iron Curtain"), documenting:

• The outsourced content-moderation system in Nairobi, Kenya, where workers reviewing beheadings, child abuse and other traumatic material for Facebook were paid as little as $2.20 per hour through the contractor Sama, and where whistleblower Daniel Motaung was fired after attempting to organize a union. Over 80 labor organizations worldwide — joined by Meta whistleblower Frances Haugen — demanded Meta stop attempting to silence him. Source: Quartz Africa (cited in the book) — qz.com

• The deliberate engineering of addictive features aimed at children and teenagers, and the company's own internal research into the harms of its products on young users — the subject of Chapter Eleven and of the state attorney-general litigation described in Section 4 below.

• Content suppression and information control on Meta platforms during the Gaza war, as part of what the book calls the Digital Iron Curtain.

3. Verified Fines and Penalties (2020 – present)

All items below were verified against the issuing authority or established press reporting on August 7, 2026.

Sources: Statista summary of EU/DPC penalties · Taylor Wessing on the €200M DMA fine · Fox Business/Reuters on the New Mexico verdict and four-state penalty trial

4. Litigation Record and Open Cases

Children and youth mental health — the defining litigation of the decade

• October 24, 2023: 41 state attorneys general and the District of Columbia sued Meta, alleging it knowingly designed addictive features that harm children's mental health and collected data on children under 13 without parental consent. The complaint states Meta "harnessed powerful and unprecedented technologies" to ensnare youth for profit. Source: PBS NewsHour, Oct 24, 2023

• Federal MDL-3047 (N.D. Cal., Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers): 2,664 pending actions as of June 2026, brought by families and nearly 800 school districts. In June–July 2026, Snap, TikTok and YouTube settled early bellwether school-district claims; Meta settled the first federal bellwether on the eve of trial. Sources: MDL-3047 tracker · Lawsuit Information Center

• Four states — California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey — proceeded to a penalties trial in Oakland (2026); Meta itself told the court the states' method could yield up to $1.4 trillion in penalties.

Kenya — content moderators (open)

• Motaung v. Meta & Sama (filed May 2022, Nairobi): allegations of forced labor and human trafficking, union-busting, and pay of roughly $2.20/hour to view the most traumatic content on the internet. Kenya's High Court (2023) and Court of Appeal (September 2024) rejected Meta's argument that it cannot be sued in Kenya; the cases — including a second suit by 185 moderators over blacklisting and mass dismissal — are proceeding, with rulings pending as of early 2026. A Kenyan court has separately ordered proper medical and psychiatric care for the moderators. Sources: Computer Weekly · Business & Human Rights Resource Centre

Antitrust — stated in full

• FTC v. Meta Platforms (D.D.C., filed December 8, 2020) sought to unwind the Instagram and WhatsApp acquisitions as illegal monopoly maintenance. After a six-week trial at which Mark Zuckerberg testified, Judge James Boasberg ruled for Meta on November 18, 2025, finding the FTC had not proven Meta currently holds monopoly power. The FTC announced in January 2026 that it will appeal. This fact sheet reports that defense verdict in full; the trial record it produced remains a public resource on Meta's acquisition strategy. Source: Congressional Research Service summary

5. Pending Investigations

• European Commission: ongoing DMA non-compliance investigation into Meta's revised "less personalised ads" model introduced November 2024.

• Irish DPC / EDPB: continuing GDPR supervision of Meta's EU–US data transfers under the €1.2 billion decision, disclosed by Meta in SEC filings as materially uncertain.

• US state attorney-general coalition actions on youth harms remain open in multiple state courts alongside the federal MDL.

6. Associations Noted in the Book

Mark Zuckerberg (founder, CEO) and Meta board members are discussed individually in separate executive fact sheets. The book situates Meta within the broader Silicon Valley political realignment of 2024–2026 and the industry-wide reliance on invisible, outsourced labor in the Global South. Associations are noted for context only; each person and company is profiled separately and stands on its own record.

Legal Disclaimer

This document is published as journalism and commentary in the public interest, protected as free speech and freedom of the press under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights. It compiles information from public records, court filings, government announcements, parliamentary and congressional investigations, and reporting by established news organizations, together with the documented first-person accounts and analysis published in the books No Ethics in Big Tech and Ethics in Tech and Lack Thereof by Vahid Razavi.

Where a fine, judgment, or settlement is described, its status (paid, under appeal, overturned, or pending) is stated as reported by the issuing authority or by reputable press as of the verification date above. Allegations in open lawsuits and investigations are exactly that — allegations — and every party is entitled to the presumption of innocence unless and until a competent court rules otherwise. Where a company or executive has prevailed in court, that outcome is reported here as well, because the credibility of this project rests on stating the record in full. Opinions and characterizations drawn from the books are the protected opinion of the author. Corrections supported by documentation are welcome via NoEthicsInBigTech.com/contact.

Research Credit

Deep research, source verification, and document preparation for this fact sheet were performed by Claude, the AI assistant built by Anthropic, working under the direction of author Vahid Razavi. Every fine amount, case citation, and status line above was checked against the primary or press source listed beside it on the verification date. This is a living document; new rulings, fines, and investigations will be added as they are verified.