Meta Agrees to $17 Billion Settlement for Child Safety Concerns Amid Landmark Trial
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OAKLAND, Calif. — Meta has agreed to pay $17 billion and add child-safety measures to its Facebook and Instagram platforms to end a landmark trial over teen social media addiction and settle claims filed by 47 states, state attorneys general announced Wednesday.
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MarketWatchThe settlement came during the second week of a California federal trial over claims brought by a coalition of 29 states that accused Meta META of designing Facebook and Instagram to “entice, engage and ultimately ensnare” children. Meta was also accused of misleading the public over the safety of its platforms and improperly collecting the personal data of children who used its services.
BBC BusinessPublished Social media giant Meta has reached a settlement with US states and territories to resolve a court case related to child safety on Facebook and Instagram.
New York Post BusinessThe $18 billion settlement was announced just days into a historic trial brought by the coalition of state attorneys general, who accused Meta of getting kids hooked on social media and ignoring harms like anxiety, depression and even suicide to protect their profits.
FortuneGood morning. Meta just settled a landmark child-safety case with a fine of up to $18 billion paid over the next decade, with annual payments equal to less than 1% of its 2025 revenue. Financially, that’s a victory for the parent of Facebook and Instagram, which said the 29-state lawsuit could have wiped out its entire market cap with penalties of up to $1.4 trillion. Meta doesn’t have to admit guilt and almost a third of the fine is contingent on competitors adopting similar measures.
CNBCBeyond the money, Meta must make changes to its apps like Facebook and Instagram as part of the "consent judgement," which the federal court in Oakland, California approved Wednesday afternoon. Those changes include daily usage limits and "nighttime blocks" for teenagers who use the company's apps, "enhanced age assurance measures" that would prevent children from using them, and the creation of additional tools for parents and guardians.
JacobinPerhaps the most important trial — and test — will be an action launched by California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey, which began last week. The states, which are seeking $200 billion in damages, argue that Meta and its platforms are addictive, targeted at children, and in violation of privacy and consumer protection laws. Meta, of course, maintains its innocence.
RealClearMarketsThe plaintiffs’ bar thanks you for scrolling. At least it should. Trial lawyers will be the biggest beneficiaries of Meta’s agreeing on Wednesday to pay as much as $18 billion to settle claims brought by 48 states and D.C. that Instagram and Facebook hurt children’s mental health. Read Full Article »
Financial TimesMeta to pay up to $16.7bn to settle children’s social media harm case Case relating to alleged failures of child protection was getting under way in California
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“Children’s safety advocates and plaintiffs’ lawyers are going to take a maximalist view of children’s safety, and I would imagine they would suggest there’s much, much more that could be done,” he said. “But this is a settlement, and sometimes you don’t want the perfect to be the enemy of the good. These are steps in the right direction if you’re looking at it from a children’s safety perspective that weren’t there yesterday.” Still, he said the settlement could mark a turning point beyond Meta alone: “You could look at this and say this is really the first domino to fall, and there’s going to be a lot more changes in this environment, not just for Meta, but for all of them: TikTok and everyone else.”
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BBC BusinessNo one is claiming the settlement is a silver bullet, but it's likely Meta and its fellow social media companies will continue to face scrutiny over the safety of children and adults on its platforms.
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"All platforms should empower parents and support teens in these ways because we know that when teens are restricted on one app, they simply move to another," Meta said.
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New York Post BusinessThe concern, of course, has been that if Meta is restricted while other platforms are not, teens will simply leave Instagram when their evening limit hits and move to another app.
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Instagram and Facebook's billions of users provide the company with a goldmine of data, and the data of adults can be used to sell ads.
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Independent claims that didn't surface elsewhere in our corpus. Treat as supplementary — not corroborated across outlets.
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01 CNBC "A few weeks of revenue, that's not enough here when you're talking about a company of this size," Uthmeier said. He noted that Florida is still pursuing its own similar lawsuit against Meta.
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02 MarketWatch Tech Stocks Meta’s stock rises as the company settles case in social-media addiction trial
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03 Fortune In today’s CEO Daily: Meta settles its child-safety case—and tries to rewrite the narrative on its design choices The big leadership story: Nvidia forecasts 70% revenue growth for its next fiscal year The markets: A mixed bag across global markets—but Nvidia shares shoot up 7% Plus: All the news and watercooler chat fromFortune .
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04 BBC Business And if they ultimately set a precedent, other social media companies may be forced to take up the rules, too.
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05 Jacobin A series of trials in the United States involving social media giant Meta could cost the tech behemoth over $1 trillion in fines and reshape social media. The efforts are a reminder that our collective capacity to regulate harms can be slow, lumbering, and imperfect, but occasionally successful. Sometimes nature heals itself. We should celebrate that.
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07 Washington Times Business “While this is a landmark settlement, Congress still needs to step up and regulate Big Tech,” said Sen. Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee.
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08 New York Post Business Under the terms of the agreement, teens will be limited to two hours daily on Facebook and Instagram, combined, and be blocked from the platforms between midnight and 6 a.m., though messaging will still be available. Notifications will be silenced during school hours, and stronger age-detection systems will be implemented, along with certain default settings that restrict beauty filters and whether or not likes on a post are visible.
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