Meta to pay $17 billion to 29 states to settle social media harm case

Social media giant, Meta Platforms Inc., the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp and numerous other businesses, has agreed to a $17 billion settlement with 29 state attorneys general to settle a 2023 lawsuit claiming social media harmed children. Central to the suit’s claims are allegations that Meta executives like Instagram chief Adam Mosseri and CEO Mark Zuckerberg publicly misrepresented certain child-safety features and related internal research to the public.

According to the California attorney general Rob Bonta, the lawsuit alleged “Meta illegally collected and used the data of children under the age of 13 who used its platforms, made decisions in designing its platforms that drove excessive use and put young users at risk, and that it lied to users, their families, and the public about the safety of Facebook and Instagram. In doing so, it violated federal and state laws, including the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, California’s False Advertising Law, and California’s Unfair Competition Law.”

The settlement landed just over a week after opening arguments kicked off. The only notable Meta executive to testify was Mosseri, who took the stand toward the end of the day on Tuesday. According to CNBC, Mosseri was asked on the stand if he was aware that Meta attorneys may have asked the company’s internal staff not to share information related to safety research for kids under 13 and teen mental health concerns. Mosseri said he “wouldn’t be surprised” if Meta lawyers reviewed child-related safety research for complicated legal and policy reasons, but would be taken aback if the motivations for doing so were to provide cover in case of potential litigation and to mislead the public.

According Bonta, “the proposed settlement critically includes strong injunctive terms designed to help protect teens from the mental health harms associated with social media use, including bans and blocks on features known to be harmful, like:

• A default daily time limit of two hours for users under 18 that can only be lifted by a parent. If other social media platforms agree to similar terms, the daily time limit will drop to one hour.
• A default nighttime block between midnight and 6am for users under 18 that can only be lifted by a parent. If other social media platforms agree to similar terms, the nighttime block will expand to cover 10pm to 7am.
• Default blocks on notifications to users under 18 from 10pm to 7am and during the school day (8am to 3pm from August 15 to June 15.)
• An enhanced mechanism for teens to report potentially harmful content and a requirement that Meta respond to 90% of those reports within six hours.
• A ban on displaying numbers of likes or reactions to users under 18.
• A ban on cosmetic procedure image filters for users under 18.
• An option for users under 18 to have a non-personalized feed, meaning a feed that doesn’t use an algorithm to target them with content aimed to keep them endlessly scrolling.
• A commitment from Meta to maintain, review, and improve existing teen content safety measures.

“The company will also be required to maintain other potections. For example:

• Meta has agreed to maintain, review, and improve existing teen content safety measures and will create enhanced parent supervision tools.
• Meta will institute robust age assurance measures to detect users under 18, as well as measures to identify and remove kids under 13 from their platforms.
• Meta will bring on an independent auditor with expansive access to information and resources, regular reporting, and the right to communicate concerns to the Attorneys General.
• Finally, Meta will be subject to an injunction prohibiting it from making further false, misleading, or deceptive statements around its safety features.”

Joining in the suit were attorneys general from Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California,  Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey,, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming, American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and Puerto Rico.