Meta will pay more than $17 billion and make changes to Facebook and Instagram to resolve claims brought by dozens of state attorneys general alleging the company misled the public about harms its platforms pose to children and teens, under a proposed settlement announced Wednesday.
The agreement includes new youth safeguards, including daily usage limits, nighttime restrictions, age-assurance measures, and additional parental tools.
The financial payments will be distributed in annual installments over 10 years. The proposed settlement needs court approval.
J.B. Branch, director of federal AI governance and technology policy at Public Citizen, an advocacy organization, questions the effectiveness of the settlement in helping children and teens, in following statement:
“Billions of dollars sounds enormous to ordinary Americans, but for Meta, spread over a decade, it is hardly the kind of penalty that will force one of the world’s wealthiest Big Tech companies to rethink how it does business.
“The real test of this settlement is whether it actually forces Meta to change its behavior. This is a company with a long history of disregard for children’s well-being and of privacy abuses. Just months ago, Meta recklessly introduced an AI feature in Instagram that allowed images of people to be generated without their consent – until widespread outrage forced the company to retreat.
“For decades, Meta’s corporate philosophy has been to push boundaries and reap profits, unleashing harms, and then proffering fake apologies and paying a pittance in penalties later. Mark Zuckerberg wanted to ‘move fast and break things.’ Zuckerberg’s companies have broken our politics, public trust, people’s privacy, and children’s well-being. We cannot let our guard down.
“Meta claims this settlement will force far-reaching, measurable and enforceable changes in its practices. We will see. We hope for the sake of our nation that this is the case. This is a company that has for years knowingly increased anxiety, self-image problems, eating disorders and self-harm among children and it does not deserve a presumption of good faith.”
