Meta, US states agree to $18B settlement
Meta agreed to pay a coalition of US states as much as $16.7 billion and to impose sweeping new limits on how teenagers use Facebook and Instagram, according to a court filing on Wednesday that ends a landmark trial in California.
The settlement, which a federal judge quickly approved, resolves claims by 29 states that Meta deliberately engineered its platforms to hook young users, misled the public about the risks, and unlawfully collected data from children under 13.
Fifty-one states, plus Washington, initially settled with Meta. Texas reached a separate agreement with Meta, which increased the total payout to around $18 billion.
The changes to how young people use its apps go further than anything Meta has accepted before, and follow years of criticism from parents and experts over the effects of the world’s biggest social media platforms on children.
Far-reaching case
Anger over the impact of Instagram and Facebook—as well as rival apps like Snapchat and TikTok—has driven the spread of age limits and school phone bans around the world.
Meta still faces thousands of additional personal injury claims and litigation from school districts.
The case by the 29 states was among the most far-reaching, with Meta warning that a courtroom loss could have exposed it to more than $1 trillion in penalties.
The agreement will apply only to teenagers in the signatory states, with no effect internationally.
The filing states that the agreement does not amount to an admission of liability or wrongdoing by Meta, which has consistently denied the allegations. It requires court approval to take effect.
Meta has agreed to a long list of new safeguards that will substantially change how the apps work for young people.
Nighttime block
One change is an automatic nighttime block that locks teenagers out of Facebook and Instagram between midnight and 6 am local time.
Teenage accounts will also be capped by default at two hours of cumulative daily use across Meta’s apps, though time spent messaging or watching long-form video does not count toward the limit.
Meta framed the deal as a template for the rest of the industry and pressed its competitors to match it.
“Because teens move fluidly across dozens of apps, we need an industry-wide solution,” said C.J. Mahoney, Meta’s chief legal officer.
“We therefore call on our industry peers, TikTok and YouTube, to implement this new framework, right away.”
Should competing platforms adopt equivalent commitments, the overnight lockout would widen to 10 p.m. through 7 a.m. and the daily allowance would fall to 60 minutes per app, capped at two hours in total.
