Meta is set to hand over about $18 billion to US states and overhaul key features on Facebook and Instagram after authorities alleged the company helped fuel compulsive use, misrepresented platform safety, and improperly gathered children’s personal data.
The social media company said the settlement will bring daily usage limits, restrictions on nighttime access for children, and new parental tools.
Those protections will automatically apply to under-18s on Instagram and Facebook in participating US states and territories — raising an immediate question for Irish users: will any of this spill over into Europe?
The court cases
The agreement announced on Wednesday ends a California trial that bundled claims from California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey, where the states argued Meta broke consumer protection laws.
It also settles allegations from 29 states that Meta violated online privacy laws by collecting children’s personal data.
Separate privacy lawsuits brought by California, Illinois, New Mexico and Washington DC are also resolved under the deal.
Meta denied wrongdoing as part of the settlement.
The money
Meta said the payments to the states will total roughly $18bn, funds that it noted “can be used to fund youth online safety initiatives, among other state priorities”.
On top of that, the company’s legal bill is expected to come in at around $10bn.
The numbers are vast, but Meta’s balance sheet dwarfs the settlement.
In its second-quarter results this year, Meta reported $60.8bn in revenue and $15.85bn in income.
And the hit could have been far worse if the company had been defeated across the cases.
US states argued Meta violated online privacy laws by collecting children’s personal data (stock image)
Before proceedings began in California, Meta said the states were pursuing penalties of up to $1.4 trillion. The states, for their part, indicated they believed a more realistic number would be closer to $200bn.
Under the terms disclosed by Meta, the $18bn will be paid out in annual instalments over 10 years.
The states will receive 70% of the total during that decade, while the remaining 30% will be held back until two conditions are satisfied, Meta said.
First, YouTube and TikTok must introduce a one-hour daily limit, a night mode, and age assurance measures.
Second, YouTube and TikTok must each pay an amount equal to that withheld 30%, with half of the remaining funds tied to YouTube’s payment and the other half linked to TikTok’s.
The changes
As part of Wednesday’s announcement, teenagers using Facebook and Instagram in the US will face a default two-hour daily time limit, which they can disable only with a parent’s permission.
Meta also said the apps will default to blocking access from midnight to 6am.
A new “school mode” will mute notifications by default between 8am and 3pm.
Teen users will be nudged after every 15 minutes of continuous time on Facebook or Instagram, and they will also see prompts when their overall daily usage reaches 60 minutes and 90 minutes.
Meta said under-18s will be able to select a non-algorithmic feed — one not driven by a recommender system — as their default experience.
30% of the settlement will be released when conditions linked to TikTok and YouTube are met
“We will periodically remind them of this option, and parents can choose to adjust their teen’s default experience to require this setting,” Meta said.
Teenagers will also be able to disable autoplay so videos and other content no longer roll on automatically.
“Instead, they’ll need to take a deliberate action, like a tap or swipe, to see more. Parents can choose to adjust their teen’s default experience to require this setting,” Meta said.
The company said it will hide likes and reactions by default and will disable cosmetic surgery and extreme makeup filters.
On age assurance, Meta said it will “work hard to find and remove underage accounts from our apps and, as part of our agreement, we’re investing in even stronger technology to proactively catch accounts that may belong to under-13s”.
A ‘breakthrough moment’
Tánaiste Simon Harris told RTÉ News the US Meta settlement should push every social media company to roll out child protection measures across platforms and across borders without delay.
“Social responsibility should not have to be compelled in court but now that we have this settlement, it needs to be a breakthrough moment,” Mr Harris said.
He added: “We have long needed to see a shift from individual responsibility to social media companies being accountable for the harms their products are causing.
“We now need to see meaningful safeguards, not limited to those agreed in the settlement, but across the range of design features which intentionally, negatively impact young people.
“This does not need to wait for measures individual governments and the EU are planning to take.”
“Social media companies must see that change is now unavoidable.”
Tánaiste Simon Harris called for a shift to social media companies being accountable
Noeline Blackwell, Online Safety Coordinator at the Children’s Rights Alliance, said the Meta agreement — alongside other US lawsuits involving major platforms — matters for campaigners in Ireland and across Europe pushing for a safer online environment for children and young people.
“While Meta stops short of admitting any wrongdoing, in settling, it concedes that it knows its products are fundamentally not safe enough,” Ms Blackwell said.
She said the added restrictions, time limits, filter bans and nighttime blocks are welcome, but argued the settlement should have required recommendation algorithms to be switched off by default.
“The very algorithms and addictive design patterns that pull children down rabbit holes and into the reach of predators,” Ms Blackwell said.
“So, the work to stop the relentless targeting and profiting off young people by these companies does not end with this case,” she added.
Will the Meta changes impact Ireland?
Meta has said the new protections and controls will automatically apply to under-18s on Instagram and Facebook in participating US states and territories.
When asked what that might mean for Ireland and the rest of Europe, a Meta spokesperson said they had nothing to add beyond the company’s original statement setting out the settlement details in the US.
Some parental controls and safeguards already exist for Instagram and Facebook users in the EU.
Following Wednesday’s deal, the European Commission was questioned about action on addictive design features on Meta’s platforms.
“We have been very clear … we expect proper screen time management, we expect proper parental control on these platforms. Meta knows … the ball is in Meta’s court,” a Commission spokesperson said.
Last month, the EU accused Meta of breaking its online safety rules, alleging that Instagram and Facebook include addictive design features intended to keep people on the platforms.
The Commission’s preliminary findings came after a two-year investigation under the Digital Services Act.
The EU Commission said it is waiting on Meta to present changes to limit addictive designs
The Commission said Meta should disable features such as autoplay and infinite scroll by default, build effective screen-time breaks and adjust its recommendation system so it is less geared toward maximising engagement.
Meta said it disagreed with the findings and that they did not “accurately take into account the significant steps we’ve taken to protect teens”.
It is somewhat ironic that while US President Donald Trump has repeatedly criticised Europe for being too strict on American tech companies, it is US courts and prosecutors that are taking the toughest stances against the social media giants and achieving the most significant results.
It is now clear that the legal shields that once protected platforms from prosecution have been breached.
It is also clear that tech companies can easily switch off harmful features and are willing to do so to avoid costly legal payouts and damaging trials.
The fines imposed by regulators in Ireland and across the EU go unpaid by social media companies and instead get lost in lengthy legal battles and appeals.
European governments have been focused on social media bans for children, but these are difficult to police and have been shown to have limited impact in other jurisdictions.
Perhaps regulators and governments on this side of the Atlantic should take inspiration from the US judicial system in order to bring about real change.
