Meta will pay the $17 billion to states over ten years, according to Bonta’s office. Most of the kids’ safety features will remain in place for the same ten-year period, according to Meta.
For Meta, the settlement will abruptly end the trial prosecutors from California and a coalition of other states had waged in an Oakland courtroom. By resolving the case, the company avoids the possibility of an even more damaging result had the jury found it liable for mental health harms that young users claimed they suffered from excessive use of Meta products. It allows CEO Mark Zuckerberg to avoid testifying and cuts short attorneys’ questioning of Instagram head Adam Mosseri, which began Tuesday.
Bloomberg first reported settlement talks between Meta and state prosecutors Tuesday evening.
The settlement could also sway the outcome of hundreds of other pending lawsuits alleging Meta, Snap, TikTok and Google, YouTube’s parent company, designed similarly addictive platforms that caused anxiety, depression, eating disorders, and in some cases, death by suicide or drug overdose.
California is expected to receive between $1.5 billion and $2.1 billion from the settlement, according to Bonta’s office. The governor and state lawmakers would decide how to spend the money.
Texas, Florida and New Mexico appear to be the only three U.S. states not listed as part of the settlement terms as described by Bonta’s office.
It would not be the first time Meta has paid up as part of child harm cases, though payouts in past cases have been significantly smaller. In March, a Los Angeles jury ruled that Meta and Google owed $6 million in penalties after finding the companies liable in another teen addiction case.
And just this month, a federal court in New Mexico ordered Meta to pay the state nearly $1 billion in penalties after its attorney general successfully argued its platforms endangered kids. The court also directed the company to implement similar design changes, such as silencing nighttime notifications and enforcing strict screen-time limits for young users.
