Meta Platforms has agreed to a settlement of up to $16.68 billion in the United States to address claims from various states that allege the company engineered Facebook and Instagram to foster addiction among children, provided misleading safety information to consumers, and unlawfully gathered personal data from young platform users. The resolution was reached during a federal trial in California involving 29 states, preventing a high-profile examination of accusations that social media entities have negatively impacted young individuals.
As part of the settlement, Meta has committed to implementing changes for teenage users across the country on Facebook and Instagram. These changes include setting daily usage limits, restricting nighttime usage for children, and enhancing safeguards to prevent access to age-restricted content. Despite agreeing to the settlement, the California-based company has denied any wrongdoing.
The agreement also resolves privacy-related lawsuits from California, Illinois, New Mexico, and Washington, D.C., stemming from the Cambridge Analytica scandal, where personal data of numerous Facebook users was collected. These states will collectively receive $459.3 million to settle their legal claims. The cases were part of a broader legal wave implicating Meta and other social media corporations in fueling a nationwide youth mental health crisis.
The trial in Oakland, California, federal court addressed claims from California, Colorado, Kentucky, and New Jersey that Meta violated state consumer protection laws. It also tackled allegations from 29 states that Meta breached the U.S. Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act by collecting personal data from known child users without parental consent, utilizing the data for training machine learning and AI models.
Before the trial, Meta disclosed that California, Colorado, Kentucky, and New Jersey were seeking penalties of up to $1.4 trillion, while the states initially estimated a figure closer to $200 billion. These states additionally sought monetary damages and demanded Meta to implement significant platform changes and prohibit children from creating accounts.
Several lawsuits against Meta, Snapchat, YouTube, TikTok, and their parent companies are ongoing in federal and state courts, accusing the platforms of deliberately designing addictive features for minors, exacerbating mental health issues. The federal cases have been consolidated under U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland, encompassing legal actions by individuals, school districts, and state governments. Moreover, numerous state court lawsuits against these companies are pending, with a substantial number overseen by a judge in Los Angeles, including claims from individuals affected by the platforms’ designs.
The settlement follows Meta’s losses in a significant lawsuit by New Mexico, where a jury ordered the company to pay $375 million for misleading consumers on platform safety. Additionally, a judge mandated Meta to pay an extra $567 million and enforce youth safety measures after being found liable for creating a public nuisance. Another trial in March ruled in favor of an individual against Meta and Google, awarding damages for depression and anxiety. The companies intend to appeal these verdicts. Lastly, the settlement pertains to the first federal court trial, where Meta and other companies settled with a Kentucky school district to compensate for harm to students, with Breathitt County School District set to receive $27 million.
