Will Meta’s $18 Billion Settlement Reshape Social Media?

Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, has agreed to pay up to $18 billion to settle a multi-state lawsuit accusing it of intentionally creating addictive features that harmed young people and then lying about the risks. The settlement will trigger restrictions for users under 18 and incentivizes other major social-media platforms to implement similar restrictions.

Had Meta continued the trial and lost, which took place in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, it could have incurred penalties as high as $1.4 trillion, according to Bloomberg law. The market value of the company is $1.47 trillion.

Attorneys General Celebrate

A slew of attorneys general released celebratory pressers in response to the settlement.

“Today, we have secured a settlement with Meta that will make social media less dangerous for our kids and make a world of a difference for children and their families,” said California Attorney General Rob Bonta. “Meta has agreed to make massive transformations that will reduce the risk of harm from its platforms — and will do it within months.”

“This is a historic settlement and a major win for the safety of Texas children,” said Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. “Meta will pay over $1 billion to the State of Texas, funding remediation efforts including youth mental health services, crisis resources, digital literacy initiatives after-school programs, and grants for Texas schools.”

The Washington, D.C., Attorney General Brian L. Schwalb said in his press release, “Meta intentionally exploited kids for profit and then lied about it, claiming its products were safe when its own internal research confirmed the platforms were addictive and harmful.… This is a monumental public health victory for young people in DC and across the country.”

Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr said the settlement “will fundamentally transform how the entire social media industry designs products for kids and teens.” He also said the agreement will “fundamentally transform how the entire social media industry designs products for kids and teens.”

Changes Coming

The settlement requires Meta to improve the way it verifies users’ ages. There will also be limits on comparison features, “including beauty filters and visible ‘like’ counts.” Meta will implement a two-hour daily limit on Facebook and Instagram “with mandatory pauses after 15 minutes of continuous use and again at 60 and 90 minutes to interrupt endless scrolling,” according to Carr’s press release. Other changes include the launch of “night mode,” which will prevent young people from accessing the app from midnight to 6:00 a.m. “School mode” will disable push notifications from 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. for those under 18. The states and an independent auditor will oversee the changes.

The Wall Street Journal explained the details of how money will be allocated:

In a unique setup, Meta will pay out only 70% of the settlement unless TikTok and YouTube, which is owned by Alphabet, also agree to set default one-hour time limits a day on their apps for underage users and each pay the states roughly $5.3 billion. Meta will only pay the remaining 30% of its settlement, also $5.3 billion, if the two other companies agree to the terms. The settlement will be distributed to the signing states in annual installments over a 10-year period based on their populations. It includes 48 states and four U.S. jurisdictions: the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, American Samoa and Northern Mariana Islands. New Mexico, which sued Meta in a similar trial this spring and won, and Florida aren’t currently part of the settlement.

Meta’s most popular platform is Facebook, which, ironically, is one of the most unpopular social-media platforms among teenagers. But the settlement also applies to Instagram, which Meta owns. Instagram, according to Pew Research, is among the top-three most popular platforms for teenagers. Only YouTube and TikTok are more popular. Alphabet has not released an official response to the settlement yet, and there is no indication so far that YouTube plans to match Meta’s new under-18 restrictions.

Questions Remain

This settlement creates a slew of unanswered questions. The most pressing, of course, is: What will Alphabet do? It commands far more users under 18 than Meta. Also, will Meta’s changes result in user difficulties for everyone else as it seeks to verify ages and identities? And, will pro-censorship forces see this as a precedent to push for restrictions to curb other “harmful” societal effects stemming from social media? For years, we have heard about the harm of “misinformation,” a code word that has usually meant inconvenient information. There have been numerous efforts, some very successful, to purge users for posting unapproved narratives under the banner of making social media safer.

For all its faults and foibles, of which there are many, social media has broken the globalists’ monopoly on information and narratives. Social media creates a digital central public square where anyone can talk. It has been central to the rise of independent media and awareness of a shadow government.