Meta has agreed to pay up to $US18 billion ($25 billion) to settle a court case brought by several US states, which alleged the social media giant deliberately designed its platforms to exploit and addict young users.

As part of the settlement, Meta has also committed to new safety measures for teenage Facebook and Instagram users, including daily usage caps, an overnight curfew, hiding ‘like’ counts’, removing some image filters, and a ban on push notifications during school hours.

The tech giant has tried to position the settlement as a challenge to its social media rivals, making some of its payments contingent on TikTok and YouTube implementing similar measures.

Nearly 50 US state Attorneys-General filed the lawsuit against Meta in 2023, alleging the company deliberately designed and monetised Facebook and Instagram to take advantage of the psychological vulnerabilities of children and teenagers.

The trial began last week, and was expected to run for six weeks and see Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg take the stand.

But it was announced on Thursday that a settlement had been reached between Meta and the Attorneys-General.

Laying down the gauntlet

Most of Meta’s settlement with the US states (70 per cent) will be paid in annual instalments across the next decade.

The final 30 per cent (about $US5.3 billion) has been made contingent on YouTube and TikTok introducing similar safety measures and jointly paying the same amount to the US states.

Meta’s promised platform changes also include installing “robust” age assurance measures, as well as stronger and more user-friendly parental controls.

These and other safety measures are expected to only be rolled out in the US states and territories that were participating in the trial.


Meta's social media platforms include Facebook, Instagram, and Threads. Image: Shutterstock

Meta chief legal officer CJ Mahoney called on other tech giants to also introduce similar safety measures.

“Because teens move fluidly across dozens of apps, we need an industry-wide solution,” Mahoney said in a blog post.

“We therefore call on our industry peers, TikTok and YouTube, to implement this new framework, right away.”

Mahoney suggested the settlement builds on Meta’s “longstanding efforts to empower parents and support teens”.

“As a parent, I’m proud of the work Meta has done to protect kids historically, and of this new groundbreaking agreement,” he said.

“But its success depends on all other social media platforms following Meta’s lead.”

A central witness in the case has criticised these safety measures, saying they don’t go far enough.

“The limitations that are in the agreement are the equivalent of saying, ‘Well you can smoke as many cigarettes as you can in two hours a day,’” Facebook whistleblower Arturo Bejar told The Guardian.

“It doesn’t make the cigarettes any safer.”

Bejar earlier testified that Zuckerberg had lied about Meta’s commitment to child safety, and that the founder had ignored concerns around harmful content on its platforms.

Meta accused of hiding internal research

The lawsuit against Meta was based on four key allegations surrounding the design of its social media platforms, specifically for young users.

These included allegedly exploitative and addictive product design, with the Attorneys-General claiming they had been engineered to compel engagement based on intermittent dopamine loops.

The lawsuit also claimed that Meta had hidden internal research that linked Instagram usage with increased depression and other mental health issues.

The case also alleged Meta had breached privacy laws in the relevant states.

University of Sydney senior research associate Dr Rob Nicholls recently wrote that a more proactive approach to online safety and social media, called a digital duty of care, is required.

“This is a proactive safety standard which would require social media platforms to design safe products from the start,” he said.

The Australian government is moving ahead with plans to introduce a digital duty of care on companies such as Meta, and began publicly consulting on its plan late last year.

This duty of care would legally require online platforms to proactively protect users from harm, rather than existing reactive systems that largely rely on user reporting.