Meta’s $18 Billion Settlement Could Be The First Step In The Overhaul Of Other Social Media Platforms
Meta agreed this week to make massive changes to its platforms to protect children and pay $18 billion in damages to settle dozens of lawsuits filed by state attorneys general across the country.
The agreement comes after Meta lost a lawsuit filed by New Mexico. In that case, the company was ordered to pay $375 million in penalties, and an additional $567 million to set up a fund meant to address the mental health issues in children the company has helped cause.
The company then tried and failed to prevent thousands of other, similar lawsuits from moving forward. This included lawsuits brought by state attorneys general across the country. Facing a potential legal reckoning, the company settled with the state attorneys general cases.
“Today, we have secured a settlement with Meta that will make social media less dangerous for our kids and make a world of difference for children and their families,” said California Attorney General Rob Bonta.
The lawsuit was filed in 2023 and alleged that Meta illegally collected and used the data of children under the age of 13, made design decisions to drive excessive use, and lied to users and their families. Bonta said that, aside from the $18 billion settlement, Meta has agreed to overhaul its platform and make changes to protect children.
“We are talking about time limits, stopping notifications during school, a block on the app during critical overnight hours, bans on plastic surgery filters, and so much more,” Bonta said.
Among the changes will be enhanced parental controls, a commitment to age assurance of users, and age-appropriate content restrictions. Some of the design changes for children will include hidden “likes” as a default, meaning kids won’t be able to see how many “likes” their content gets or how many “likes” other people get.
One of Meta’s initial reactions after it lost the New Mexico case was to threaten to shutdown its service in the state, claiming that the safety measures the state wanted were too onerous. “As a practical matter, this requirement effectively requires Meta to shut down its services — for all users in the state — or else comply with impossible obligations,” Meta said in a court filing.
Meta then fought to avoid having to face the thousands of similar lawsuits that had been filed against the company across the country. However, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the lawsuits could move forward.
After those defeats, the company now says that it plans to take steps to address the concerns raised in the lawsuits, despite the fact that it had publicly claimed for years that its central platforms, Instagram and Facebook, were safe.
“Ensuring teens have a safe and productive experience on our platforms is an absolute imperative for Meta. We want to get this right for parents and teens, and that’s why we partnered with state attorneys general to set a new industry standard,” the company said in a statement.
Meta urged competitors such as TikTok and YouTube to make similar changes and address underlying safety issues that could be adversely impacting the mental health of young people.
“While this is an important step, the fact is that teens move fluidly between dozens of apps a day. All platforms should empower parents and support teens by putting the same measures in place, because we know that when teens are restricted on one app, they simply move to another,” the company stated. “For meaningful progress to happen, we urge TikTok and YouTube to join us and state attorneys general in adopting this new standard, to ensure teens use social media in a healthy and responsible way.”
