Meta will pay D.C. between $90 million and $130 million as part of a settlement agreement to resolve a large, multistate lawsuit over claims the company’s platforms endangered children’s mental health.
The sweeping settlement touches 47 states, along with D.C., Puerto Rico and American Samoa. The tech company has agreed to pay $12 billion to the plaintiffs, but that number could rise to $17.1 billion if other tech companies — Snap, TikTok and YouTube — also reach similar legal agreements with the jurisdictions and agree to change their products.
The dollar amount is among the highest a tech company has paid to states — and the product changes Meta agreed to as part of the settlement will “fundamentally and immediately change how young people use Instagram and Facebook,” D.C. Attorney General Brian L. Schwalb said in a news release Wednesday.
The agreement is among the largest consumer protection settlements the District has ever seen; the other largest payouts include the more than $100 million the District has received as part of massive multistate settlements related to opioid litigation and the tens of millions D.C. still receives annually as part of the historic 1998 settlement with tobacco companies.
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Schwalb joined dozens of other state attorneys general in suing the massive tech company in 2023, alleging that its social media platforms, Instagram and Facebook, had caused long-term psychological damage to kids and teens.
“The physical, mental and emotional harms that intentionally addictive social media platforms inflict on youth — and particularly teenage girls — are widespread across the tech industry, and this successful, coordinated multistate litigation has resulted in Meta being the first platform to come to the table and to agree to such comprehensive reforms,” said Schwalb. “It will not be the last.”
The company also agreed to implement significant new safety features to protect children on its platforms, including a two-hour daily time limit and stricter content controls for media related to eating disorders, self-harm and suicide.
“The framework we’ve negotiated will empower parents to easily manage how their children access our platforms,” C.J. Mahoney, Meta’s chief legal officer, said in a statement. “Our new Time Limit commitments, Night Mode features and usage limits during school hours, set the right path forward for our whole industry, but this framework will only work if all our peers join us. Because teens move fluidly across dozens of apps, we need an industry-wide solution. We therefore call on our industry peers, TikTok, Snap, and YouTube, to implement this new framework, right away.”
Meta will pay out the settlement money in installments over the next 10 years. It’s not yet clear exactly how D.C. will spend its settlement money, but the agreement requires at least 50 percent of the funds to be spent supporting mental health for young people. It defines that spending broadly, but says it could include funding for the 988 suicide and crisis lifeline, after-school or summer programs, public health advertising, training for medical providers, digital literacy counselors, outdoor activities and other safety or enrichment initiatives for teens and children.
This story was updated to include a statement from Meta.
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