Meta Platforms has agreed to a historic $16.68 billion settlement with a nationwide coalition of state attorneys general, resolving multi-year litigation accusing the tech giant of intentionally engineering addictive features that harmed young users.
The settlement resolves claims brought by 29 states, which alleged that Meta violated the federal Children's Online Privacy Protection Act by collecting personal data from users it knew were children without parental notification or consent, and using the data to train machine learning and generative AI models.
It ended a federal trial that had been one of the highest-profile tests yet of allegations that social media companies harmed young users.
Wednesday's settlement also resolves lawsuits by California, Illinois, New Mexico and Washington, D.C., over privacy claims related to the Cambridge Analytica scandal, where the consulting firm collected personal data of millions of Facebook users. Those states will receive $459.3 million to resolve those lawsuits.
The Menlo Park, California, based company has long argued it could not have misled consumers about whether its services were addictive because "social media addiction" is not a recognized psychiatric condition.
The company agreed to impose daily usage limits and restrict nighttime usage by children who use Facebook and Instagram, and enhance measures to prevent children from accessing age-restricted content.
A MENTAL HEALTH CRISIS
Meta, Snapchat and its parent Snap, YouTube and its parent Alphabet, and TikTok and its parent ByteDance still face thousands of lawsuits in federal and state courts over claims they knowingly designed their platforms to have features that addict children and teenagers, fueling a mental health crisis. A trial in Nashville over claims brought by Tennessee against Meta began last month.
The federal cases were consolidated before U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland, and include lawsuits brought by individuals, school districts and state governments.
Earlier this year, Meta lost both phases of a landmark lawsuit brought by New Mexico. A jury in March ordered it to pay $375 million after finding it had misled consumers about the safety of its platforms. On August 6, a judge found Meta had created a public nuisance and ordered it to pay an additional $567 million and implement youth-safety measures.
Also in March, the first trial over an individual’s claims against Meta and Google ended with a verdict in the plaintiff's favor. A Los Angeles jury found the companies liable for plaintiff Kaley G.M.'s depression and anxiety and ordered them to pay a combined $6 million in damages.
The companies have said they will appeal those verdicts.