Tech behemoth Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and more, has been ordered to pay out nearly $18 billion in the largest consumer protection settlement since the 1990s-era lawsuits against Big Tobacco. As part of the settlement with a consortium of U.S. states, Meta will be introducing a variety of new controls for teenagers and their parents.
The new restrictions for younger users include a two-hour daily time limit, automatic notification clearing and pauses to prevent endless scrolling, blocking the app overnight as well as during school hours, and enhanced parental controls. The settlement includes negotiated terms wherein $5.3 billion of the settlement funds will only be released to the states if Meta competitors YouTube (owned by Google parent Alphabet), TikTok (run under joint venture USDS in the states), and Snap (the owners of Snapchat) agree to “similar safety features, including a one-hour daily time limit, a night time block and age-assurance measures; and paying the same amount, split between the two companies.”
Meta officials defended these terms, saying in part that certain aspects of the settlement would be more effective if applied to all social media platforms across the board. If Google and TikTok agree to those terms, Meta has offered to implement stronger default time limits and increase the duration of its notification-free “night mode.”
States attorneys have touted the size of the settlement compared to previous consumer protection suits, but the total payout over 10 years is the equivalent of just one month’s revenue for the tech company. The settlement also did not force Meta to admit wrongdoing, though the structure of the settlement may enable further regulation and litigation against social media companies more broadly.
While Meta has settled with 47 states, Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico, American Samoa, and the Northern Mariana Islands, the settlements do not include Texas or New Mexico. Texas reached a separate settlement with Meta, while New Mexico had recently succeeded in suing Meta within the state. The state of Florida currently plans to continue the litigation alone with the intention of taking Meta to trial.
