Meta will pay $18 billion and overhaul key features on Facebook and Instagram under a settlement with US states that accused the company of making its platforms addictive, misleading users about safety and unlawfully gathering children’s personal information.
The company has agreed to introduce daily usage limits, restrict children’s access to the apps overnight and expand parental controls.
- Advertisement -
The measures will automatically apply to users under 18 on Instagram and Facebook in the US states and territories covered by the agreement. But the settlement has also raised questions about whether young people in Ireland and elsewhere in Europe will see similar protections.
The court cases
The agreement announced on Wednesday ended a trial in California involving claims by California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey. The states alleged that Meta had breached consumer-protection laws by designing its services in ways that encouraged excessive use.
It also settled separate privacy lawsuits brought by California, Illinois, New Mexico and Washington DC, which focused on the collection of children’s personal data.
Meta agreed to the settlement without admitting wrongdoing.
The money
Meta’s payments to the US states will total about $18bn. The company said the money could be used for youth online-safety programmes and other priorities identified by the states.
Meta’s legal expenses are expected to reach roughly $10bn.
The figures are substantial, although they are manageable for a company of Meta’s size.
Meta reported revenue of $60.8bn and income of $15.85bn in the second quarter of this year.
The financial exposure could have been considerably greater had the company lost the cases.
US states argued Meta violated online privacy laws by collecting children’s personal data (stock image)
Before the California trial opened, Meta said the states were seeking as much as $1.4 trillion in penalties. The states indicated that the eventual figure would be nearer $200bn.
Meta said it would pay the $18bn in annual instalments over a period of 10 years.
The states are guaranteed 70% of the settlement during that decade. The remaining 30% will be paid only if two conditions involving YouTube and TikTok are satisfied.
Under the first condition, both platforms must introduce a one-hour daily limit, night mode and age-assurance measures.
The second requires YouTube and TikTok to each contribute an amount equivalent to half of the remaining 30%: one half linked to YouTube’s payment and the other to TikTok’s.
The changes
Under the settlement announced on Wednesday, Instagram and Facebook in the US will set a two-hour daily limit for teenagers by default. They will need permission from a parent to disable it.
The apps will also be blocked by default between midnight and 6am.
A new ‘school mode’ will silence notifications by default from 8am to 3pm.
Teenagers will see reminders after every 15 minutes of uninterrupted use on Facebook or Instagram. Further prompts will appear when daily usage reaches 60 minutes and again at 90 minutes.
Users under 18 will be offered the option of making a non-algorithmic feed — one not shaped by a recommendation system — 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, meaning videos and other content will no longer begin playing 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.
Likes and reactions will be hidden by default, while cosmetic-surgery and extreme-makeup filters will be disabled.
On age assurance, Meta said it would “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 that the US case should push every social media company to introduce stronger protections for children across all its platforms and in every country where it operates.
“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 and other US lawsuits targeting social media firms were important developments for campaigners in Ireland and across Europe seeking a safer digital 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 welcomed the extra restrictions, time limits, filter bans and overnight blocks, but said the settlement did not go far enough because recommendation algorithms should have been turned 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 confirmed that the new safeguards and controls will automatically cover under-18 users of Instagram and Facebook in participating US states and territories.
When asked whether the changes would be extended to Ireland or other European countries, a company spokesperson said there was nothing to add beyond its initial statement detailing the US settlement.
Some safety features and parental controls are already available to Instagram and Facebook users in the European Union.
Following Wednesday’s announcement, the European Commission was asked whether it would pursue action over 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 online-safety rules, alleging that Instagram and Facebook included design features intended to keep users engaged for longer.
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 switch off features including autoplay and infinite scrolling by default, introduce effective breaks from screen time and make its recommendation system less centred on maximising engagement.
Meta rejected the findings, saying they did not “accurately take into account the significant steps we’ve taken to protect teens”.
There is an apparent irony in the contrast between US President Donald Trump’s repeated criticism of Europe for taking a tough approach to American technology companies and the growing impact of US courts and prosecutors on the social media industry.
The latest cases show that the legal protections once relied upon by platforms are no longer an impenetrable shield against prosecution.
They also demonstrate that technology companies can disable potentially harmful features — and may be prepared to do so when the alternative is a costly settlement or a damaging trial.
By contrast, fines imposed by regulators in Ireland and elsewhere in the EU often remain unpaid while social media companies pursue lengthy legal challenges and appeals.
European governments have largely concentrated on proposals to ban children from social media, but such measures are difficult to enforce and have produced limited results in other jurisdictions.
For regulators and governments on this side of the Atlantic, the US courtroom strategy may offer a more effective model for forcing meaningful change.
