Meta agrees $18B settlement to end teen social hygiene lawsuit
Meta has agreed to pay up to $18 billion and to make changes to Facebook and other online services, all to settle a federal lawsuit alleging teenagers are being harmed by social media.
Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta has been dealing with a trial concerning the mental and social effects of social media for a while, but it’s seemingly no longer a problem. The social giant has managed to hammer out a settlement with some functional concessions as well as a hefty fine.
The settlement is with 48 state attorneys general across the entire United States, including four jurisdictions, reports the Wall Street Journal. The exceptions are New Mexico, which won in a similar trial in the spring, and Florida, which didn’t take part in the settlement.
Under the settlement’s terms, Meta will pay a maximum of $18 billion, but only if TikTok and YouTube also play nice. Otherwise, Meta will only have to pay 70% of the figure.
TikTok and YouTube would each have to pay a combined $5.3 billion between the two companies and abide by the same service changes as Meta. In exchange, Meta would also have to pay the remaining 30%, which is also $5.3 billion.
The settlement funds will be provided to the states in annual payments over ten years, with per-state amounts varying by population.
The deal has Meta agreeing to set a default one-hour time limit per day for underage users. It also agreed to introduce a “night mode” to block apps between midnight and 6 A.M., and a “school mode” to disable push notifications between 8 A.M. and 3 P.M.
The case still needs to be approved by a federal judge before it is finalized.
As a byproduct, the settlement stops an ongoing trial involving the state attorneys general of California, Colorado, Kentucky, and New Jersey. The quartet alleged that Meta had violated state consumer protection laws as well as the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (COPPA).
More to come
When it comes to the actual amount of cash Meta will have to pay for the settlement, it will be viewed as the company avoiding a much bigger penalty.
The state AGs collectively wanted around $200 billion in damages for the lawsuit. The resulting settlement is less than 10% of that figure, if Meta has to pay the full amount.
In the New Mexico trial that Meta lost, it was ordered to pay $375 million in civil penalties and create a $567 million abatement fund to rectify harms toward New Mexico youth, as well as app changes.
This may not be the entire end of the matter for Meta, either. It still has to deal with lawsuits from school districts and individuals claiming to have been wronged by the design and utility of social media apps.
