Meta agrees to settle social media addiction claims with states for up to $18 billion

Meta Platforms, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, on Wednesday agreed to settle a wide-ranging social media addiction lawsuit with the state of California and a number of other states.

“The agreement includes a payment of approximately $18 billion, which can be used to fund youth online safety initiatives, among other state priorities,” Meta said in a statement.

The court filing says that the company “denies the allegations against it and that it has any liability to the Plaintiffs,” which are a collection of 29 states.

As part of the deal, “Meta commits to establishing daily limits and blocks on nighttime use for teenage users” as well as “enhanced age assurance measures to prevent children from accessing the platform, or age restricted content available on the platform,” the court filing also says.

Under the settlement, teen accounts would default to a setting that limits cumulative use across both Facebook and Instagram to two hours per day. The company said teens would need a parent’s permission to disable the two-hour limit.

Meta also agreed to hide the likes on teens’ posts by default and to block what it called “extreme makeup filters.”

The company said teens will also be able to “choose a non-algorithmic feed — one that isn’t personalized by our recommendation systems — as their default.” Teen users will also be able to disable autoplay video.

The settlement also requires the company to create “additional tools to help parents and guardians to protect their children online.”