Up to $18 billion. This is the figure Meta has agreed to pay as part of a settlement to resolve lawsuits filed by states across the country, alleging that the company designed Facebook and Instagram to create addiction in children, misled consumers about the safety of these platforms, and improperly collected personal data from minors who used them.
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The agreement, which still needs court approval, was reached during a federal trial in California that ended up lasting less than a week, concerning lawsuits filed by 29 states, with four of them leading the charge. The pact will avoid one of the most impactful litigations to date regarding accusations that social media companies harmed young users, and in which four of the states claimed up to $1.4 trillion in damages, as well as drastic changes to the tech giant’s platforms.
“Today we announce an agreement with a group of 52 attorneys general, from both parties, in U.S. states and territories including the District of Columbia, to advance our ongoing efforts to support teens and empower parents,” Meta said in a statement.
As part of the agreement, Meta will implement a series of changes, which will include an automatic limit on the time its teenage users can be connected: two hours daily, which can only be extended if parents give express permission. Minors will also not be able to access the platforms between midnight and six in the morning, unless their parents also consent. Similarly, they will not be able to receive notifications during school hours, between eight in the morning and three in the afternoon.
The company will also block children’s access to the number of “likes” or reactions to posts, strengthen its measures to prevent them from seeing inappropriate content, and make more tools available to parents and guardians of minors.
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The agreement also indirectly involves Meta’s rivals, TikTok and Alphabet, owner of YouTube. The company founded by Mark Zuckerberg will only have to pay 70% of the total agreed compensation unless its competitors also approve the one-hour daily limit for teenage users and agree to pay the states approximately $5.3 billion. If TikTok and YouTube agree, Meta will also pay the remaining 30%, another $5.3 billion, of the settlement.
The compensation payment will be distributed over a decade, in annual disbursements to 48 states and four jurisdictions: the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, American Samoa, and the Northern Mariana Islands. New Mexico, which had filed its own lawsuit against the tech giant, and Florida are not included in the agreement.
The states accuse Meta of violating the federal Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, which prohibits the collection of data from minors without parental consent. They also accuse it of misleading consumers by promoting the safety of its platforms, even though at the same time its executives were aware of the risks the platform posed to young people, risks they had debated and studied internally. Consequently, they developed addictive products, which have led some young people to experience mental health problems, such as anxiety and depression, and in some cases have even led to suicide.
In a statement, Meta said about the agreement: “Ensuring that teenagers enjoy a safe and productive experience on our platforms is an absolute imperative for us. We want to do the right thing for parents and teenagers, and that is why we are collaborating with state attorneys general to set new industry standards.”
