Meta Settles State Lawsuits Over Harm to Young Users

Settlement in Oakland

Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, has settled a consolidated lawsuit brought by state attorneys general who accused it of knowingly designing its products to hook young people. The case went to trial in Oakland, California, and was expected to run for weeks before ending abruptly with an agreement, The New Yorker reported.

The two sources give different figures for the deal. The New Yorker described a settlement worth at least twelve billion dollars, paid over ten years, while ABC News reported an eighteen billion dollar settlement involving 48 states plus the District of Columbia and United States territories. The reason for the difference is not explained in either account.

The claims were consolidated in late 2022 from cases brought by more than two dozen state attorneys general, alleging that Meta's products "exploit and manipulate its most vulnerable consumers: teenagers and children." Meta, based in Menlo Park, California, is valued at 1.5 trillion dollars, according to The New Yorker.

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Testimony and Earlier Cases

Before the settlement, jurors heard from Arturo Béjar, a former Meta engineering director for product safety turned whistle-blower. He said the company culture "made it so that it was practically impossible to deliver features that addressed the well-being and safety issues that we've been talking about."

Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, also testified and pushed back on the lawsuit's description of heavy social media use as "clinical addiction."

The New Yorker noted other recent rulings. A young woman who said her mental health deteriorated because of social media use was awarded three million dollars in a case decided this spring, and in a case brought by New Mexico's attorney general a court ordered Meta to pay nearly a billion dollars in fines and to change its products and business practices. Meta is appealing that decision.

Age Checks at the Centre

ABC News reported that no part of the settlement carries more detailed requirements than Meta's commitments on age assurance, because the other protections only work if the company can tell which users are children. The agreement gives Meta a year to refine its approach, and the company says the protections could become industry standards.

Meta accepts government-issued identity documents to check ages and promises to delete them within 30 days. ABC News noted that many people are reluctant to hand a driver's licence or passport to a large technology company, and that adults may also have to prove they are over 18.

Beyond documents, companies increasingly use artificial intelligence to estimate ages, which is not the same as verifying a birth date. Google began using such a system for YouTube last year, based on viewers' watch histories, and Meta does the same. On Instagram the signals include posts about birthdays or school, what users like and comment on, and who their friends are.

Similar efforts are under way at Google, TikTok and Roblox as regulatory pressure grows. Many observers have compared the Meta agreement to the Tobacco Master Settlement of 1998, in which four large tobacco companies accepted fines, marketing restrictions and public health disclosures.