Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, agreed this Wednesday to pay a maximum of 16.68 billion dollars to resolve lawsuits filed by a bipartisan coalition of 52 state attorneys general, territories, and the District of Columbia in the United States, according to a court document published by the EFE agency.
The agreement ends a federal trial taking place in Oakland, California, which consolidated the claims of 29 states.
The process had started on August 18 with California, Colorado, Kentucky, and New Jersey as the main litigating states.
Authorities accused the company of designing its social networks to create addiction among minors and misleading consumers about the safety of its platforms, in addition to collecting data from children in violation of the federal children’s privacy law, COPPA.
Meta accepted the agreement to avoid prolonging the litigation, but denies the allegations and any responsibility.
The financial structure of the agreement is complex. Approximately 70% of the amount — about 12.7 billion dollars — will be distributed among the participating states in annual payments over ten years, intended to fund online youth security initiatives and mental health programs.
The remaining 30% —approximately 5.3 billion— is conditional: it will only be released if TikTok and YouTube adopt equivalent safety measures for minors and contribute similar amounts. Thus, the total figure could reach 18 billion dollars, according to the official statement from Meta.
Along with the payment, the company committed to implementing a set of protections for users under 18 years old on Instagram and Facebook, which must be maintained for at least ten years.
Among the measures are a daily limit of two hours of cumulative use—deactivatable only with parental permission—nighttime app blocking from midnight to six in the morning, silencing notifications during school hours, mandatory alerts after 15, 60, and 90 minutes of continuous use, default hiding of the "likes" counter, and blocking filters for cosmetic surgery and extreme makeup.
Meta also published an open letter urging TikTok and YouTube to adopt the same measures, arguing that "these protections will only be truly effective if we work with our peers to implement the same measures."
The announcement came a day after Adam Mosseri, Instagram's director, testified in the trial in California.
In his statement, Mosseri acknowledged that some measures for protecting minors had a "much smaller impact than we expected." It was anticipated that the CEO Mark Zuckerberg would also testify before the agreement was finalized.
The agreement excludes New Mexico and Florida, which have separate lawsuits against the company. Furthermore, it still requires a judge's approval to become final.
After the announcement, Meta's shares rose by more than 3% on Wall Street, signaling that the markets viewed the agreement as a favorable resolution for the company after years of legal uncertainty.
The case has its roots in 2023, when the coalition of prosecutors first filed the lawsuits, transforming this pact into the largest out-of-court settlement in U.S. history related to social media harms to minors.
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