> What reckoning? The settlement benefits Meta immensely.

This was one lawsuit. It settled their immediate legal problems with the 47 states and DC that were included in the settlement.

Florida is continuing with its own case against them, and there are also thousands of other pending cases from individuals (89%) and governments below the state level such as school districts (11%).

The present settlement does include an admission of guilt so the plaintiffs in those other suits so there plaintiffs will also have to prove guilt, put they can use a massive amount of material that the states put together in their case.

They can use anything that was presented in open court.

They can also get copies of all the internal Meta information that the state Attorney Generals got via discovery, even if those documents were never presented in open court. They may have to keep them confidential and so can't use them in open court, but they can use them to build their case and depose Meta executives about them.

All in all, the plaintiffs in thousands of pending cases have just been handed a multi-million page trove of evidence put together using the enormous resources of 47 states designed to nail Meta.