Meta to Pay $18bn to US States
Meta agreed to pay up to $18bn to 48 states, Washington DC and three territories after a lawsuit alleging harm to children.
Settlement Details
Meta has reached a settlement that could see the company hand out as much as $18bn to 48 states, the District of Columbia and three US territories. The payment will be spread over ten years in annual instalments, a detail highlighted in the stats. The deal represents Meta’s largest payout in child-safety litigation to date.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta said the agreement marks a "major moment to clean up an industry that has been hurting our kids". Meta denied wrongdoing as part of the settlement and confirmed it will implement a range of changes aimed at protecting younger users.
Trial Highlights
The lawsuit began in 2023 when 29 states accused Meta of violating federal and state child-privacy laws. A federal judge in New Mexico recently ruled Meta a public nuisance and ordered it to pay almost $1bn in fines. The current case, heard in an Oakland courthouse, lasted only five days before the parties settled.
During the brief trial, state lawyers presented millions of internal Meta documents, including research, employee emails and chat logs that reached up to CEO Mark Zuckerberg. One internal study noted that teens have an "addict's narrative about use" and that Meta targeted young users.
"The trial did not go well for Meta," Bonta said on Wednesday. Meta maintained that it had invested heavily in safety research and feature development. Instagram head Adam Mosseri testified for an hour before the case was adjourned.
New Safety Features
Meta will now enforce a default night-mode that blocks notifications between midnight and 6am, a setting that can only be turned off by a parent or guardian. The company will also introduce:
- A default two-hour daily time limit across Instagram and Facebook that teens can only disable with parental permission.
- Hidden likes on teen profiles and those they interact with.
- A "school mode" that mutes notifications from 8am to 3pm on school days.
- Prompts when a teen reaches 15 minutes of continuous use, followed by alerts at 60 and 90 minutes of cumulative use.
- A non-algorithmic feed option.
- The ability to turn off autoplay for videos and other content.
- Removal of extreme makeup filters.
If other platforms such as TikTok, Snap and YouTube adopt similar restrictions, the daily limit for teens could be reduced to one hour.
Industry Implications
Bonta urged other social-media companies to follow Meta’s example, warning that his office would focus on broader industry reforms if they did not comply. Meta’s chief legal officer, C J Mahoney, said the framework would only work if peers joined in.
"Our new Time Limit commitments, Night Mode features and usage limits during school hours set the right path forward for our whole industry, but this framework will only work if all our peers join us," Mahoney said.
The District of Columbia Attorney General Brian Schwalb called the deal a "monumental public health victory" and added that the safety features would "fundamentally and immediately change how young people use Instagram and Facebook." The settlement also notes that YouTube and TikTok have been contacted for comment.
The case concludes with the court adjourned before Adam Mosseri could reappear, a development noted in the fixtures.
