Former Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter on Meta's federal trial over child safety

Watch on YouTube ↗  |  August 18, 2026 at 15:08  |  4:03  |  CNBC
Speakers
Jonathan Kanter — Former Assistant Attorney General for DOJ Antitrust Division

Summary

Former Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter discusses Meta's federal trial over child safety and frames it as part of Big Tech's Big Tobacco moment. He highlights the large potential damages and unusual remedies sought, including deletion of child data and AI models trained on that data. Kanter notes that early legal outcomes have been unfavorable for Meta while peers settled, and he warns that AI frontier model companies should heed the shifting legal landscape.

  • Meta faces opening arguments in a teen addiction case in California.
  • State AGs seek tens to hundreds of billions in damages plus product changes and data/model deletion.
  • Meta recently lost a New Mexico case that rose to roughly $900 million.
  • Snap, YouTube, and TikTok settled similar suits while Meta is fighting and may appeal.
  • Kanter calls the current environment Big Tech's Big Tobacco moment.
  • AI frontier model companies may face future legal risk over product and data decisions.
Ideas
Jonathan Kanter Former Assistant Attorney General for DOJ Antitrust Division 0:29
Meta faces massive child-safety legal liability.
Meta faces a large child-safety legal overhang: state AG cases could bring tens to hundreds of billions in monetary damages plus remedies that force product changes, deletion of child data, and elimination of models trained on that data. Meta recently lost a New Mexico case that rose to roughly $900 million, and Kanter says the legal trajectory is unfavorable for Meta.
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Jonathan Kanter Former Assistant Attorney General for DOJ Antitrust Division 3:40
Big Tech faces Big Tobacco-style litigation.
Kanter argues Big Tech is entering its Big Tobacco moment: the immunity and enforcement gap that once made Big Tech untouchable, partly via Section 230, is eroding. Lawsuits are going to trial and states and the public are winning, creating a broad litigation and regulatory overhang for the sector.
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This CNBC video, published August 18, 2026, features Jonathan Kanter discussing META, XLK. 2 trade ideas extracted by AI with direction and confidence scoring.

Speakers: Jonathan Kanter  · Tickers: META, XLK