OAKLAND (BP) – Meta has agreed to pay upwards of $17 billion as part of a settlement involving 47 states that includes upgraded protections for younger users of its social media platforms.
The settlement resolves claims brought by 29 states that had been bundled into the California case. It includes other states as well as the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, American Samoa and the Northern Mariana Islands, all claiming that Meta’s platforms were addictive to young users and contributed to a nationwide mental health crisis of that demographic.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg was expected to testify prior to the settlement package, which awaits the approval and signature of U.S. District Court Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers.
The agreement includes more protective measures for young users, including:
- Daily cumulative time limit of two hours across Facebook and Instagram
- Nighttime restricted use from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m.
- Stronger age-assurance restrictions to protect against restricted content
- Disabling of push notifications during school hours.
“Today, we have secured a settlement with Meta that will make social media less dangerous for our kids and make a world of a difference for children and their families,” said California Attorney General Rob Bonta. “Meta has agreed to make massive transformations that will reduce the risk of harm from its platforms — and will do it within months.”
Privacy claims brought by California, Illinois, New Mexico and Washington, D.C., over the Cambridge Analytica scandal to the tune of $459.3 million were also resolved in the settlement.
Meta asserted that California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey were seeking as much as $1.4 trillion in penalties when the California trial began on Aug. 18. The states claim the figure was closer to $200 billion.
The trial was in its second week. Meta accepts no liability with the settlement, as its longstanding position is that “social media addiction” is not a recognized psychiatric diagnosis. The company had also joined with social media giant ByteDance in an appeal to the basis of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996. The states, in effect, bypassed that argument by focusing on Meta’s product design and alleged misrepresentations, rather than liability for third-party user content.
Today’s announcement is the culmination of nearly every state attorney general in the country deciding in 2021 to investigate the social media industry for potential harms against teens. Thousands of lawsuits by individuals and other groups remain against Meta and the parent companies of Snapchat (Snap), Google (Alphabet) and TikTok (ByteDance).
“The Tennessee Attorney General’s office extended thanks to Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser and his team, who worked alongside Tennessee to coordinate the multistate investigation and lead the States in negotiating the settlement,” read a statement from the office of Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti. The statement made a point of thanking Skrmetti’s predecessor, Herbert Slatery, who launched the investigation.
Three states opted out of the coalition settlement. A separate trial in New Mexico had already brought approximately $942 million in damages. CBS News reported that a separate Texas settlement came in at $1 billion. Florida is continuing with its claims, calling the current settlement insufficient when considering penalties and remedy structure.
