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Meta says it’ll pay up to $18 billion in social media claims
Confirmed
Meta Platforms said it agreed to pay up to $18 billion in landmark settlements to resolve social media claims from U.S. states that would require the company to make major changes to how it operates platforms like Facebook and Instagram.
Meta has agreed to pay as much as $17.1 billion and implement restrictions on teen accounts to settle claims that the tech giant designed Facebook and Instagram to addict children and misled the public about the platforms’ safety.
As part of the settlement, Meta will pay at least $12.1 billion over the next 10 years to the coalition states that sued and an additional $5 billion if other social media companies, including YouTube and TikTok, agree to settlements in the future, state attorneys general said.
Arturo Béjar, a former Meta engineering director, said during his testimony in the trial last week that the company designed its social media platforms to keep people engaged even if it harmed their mental health. Meta will lay off around 8,000 workers, the company said in a memo to employees. (Arda Kucukkaya/Anadolu via / ) Meta will pay at least $12.1 billion over 10 years under the agreement, according to the D.C. attorney general’s office.
A Meta spokesperson said the company settled separately with Texas, which was not part of the multistate settlement, bringing the total payout to roughly $18 billion. Meta said that it is expected to take about six months to roll out any changes.
"The trial did not go well for Meta," Bonta said on Wednesday. The company could be required to pay another $5 billion, bringing the settlement to $17.1 billion, if other major social media companies agree to adopt comparable child-safety measures.
Rob Bonta, the attorney general of California, where Meta is based, said the settlement will force the company to overhaul its approach to designing and operating social media. Meta said Wednesday that the agreement builds on its existing efforts to protect teens and give parents more control over their children’s use of its platforms.
"Meta has agreed to make massive transformations that will reduce the risk of harm from its platforms — and will do it within months," he said in a statement. Meta corporate headquarters is seen in Menlo Park, California, on November 9, 2022. (JOSH EDELSON/AFP via / ) Meta, however, noted that some changes, like nighttime hours, are still conditional and would only be implemented once its competitors like YouTube and TikTok get on board with similar limits on their platforms.
What's confirmed
- Meta Platforms said it agreed to pay up to $18 billion in landmark settlements to resolve social media claims from U.S. states that would require the company to make major changes to how it operates platforms like…
- "The trial did not go well for Meta," Bonta said on Wednesday.
- As part of the settlement, Meta will pay at least $12.1 billion over the next 10 years to the coalition states that sued and an additional $5 billion if other social media companies, including YouTube and TikTok,…
- Rob Bonta, the attorney general of California, where Meta is based, said the settlement will force the company to overhaul its approach to designing and operating social media.
- "Meta has agreed to make massive transformations that will reduce the risk of harm from its platforms — and will do it within months," he said in a statement.
- Arturo Béjar, a former Meta engineering director, said during his testimony in the trial last week that the company designed its social media platforms to keep people engaged even if it harmed their mental health.
- Meta said Wednesday that the agreement builds on its existing efforts to protect teens and give parents more control over their children’s use of its platforms.
- The company could be required to pay another $5 billion, bringing the settlement to $17.1 billion, if other major social media companies agree to adopt comparable child-safety measures .
What's still developing
- Meta will also implement a host of changes aimed at better protecting kids online, which the states had demanded , including default daily time limits and night-time blocks.
- "This is a major moment to clean up an industry that has been hurting our kids," California Attorney General Rob Bonta said.
- Meta has denied any wrongdoing as part of the settlement and said on Wednesday that the payment it agreed to "will be distributed in annual instalments over a 10-year period".
- As a jury trial kicked off last week in an Oakland, California, federal court, state lawyers argued the tech company knew that millions of 11- and 12-year-old users were on Instagram and Facebook over the years, yet…
- Although the trial had only gone on for five days, state lawyers relied heavily on information found in millions of internal Meta documents provided in the case.
- Still, the states argued, Meta targeted young users.
- "We're always working on teen safety," head of Instagram Adam Mosseri said during an hour of court testimony on Tuesday.
- Volichenko said he struggled to understand when he was at the company in 2022 why the team he worked on wasn't given more freedom to better test and implement new safety features.