PA Expects Up To $729 Million From $17.1 Billion Facebook, Instagram Settlement

Pennsylvania is expected to receive at least $516 million and potentially as much as $729 million under a $17.1 billion settlement between Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, and a coalition of states.

The settlement is related to allegations by 47 states and several territories that Meta designed its products to be addictive to children. The attorneys general of California, Colorado, Kentucky, and New Jersey led the effort, with lawyers from the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office taking part.

Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday, a Republican, said the settlement will bring “landmark” changes to how Meta’s platforms operate and that the protections for youth are more important than the money expected to go to the state.

“The days of Meta ignoring the damage its platforms cause kids are over — this is a landmark settlement that brings transformative changes to these hugely-popular social media spaces,” Sunday said in a statement. “These settlement terms will implement effective age restrictions, put a stop to endless scrolling, and limit body-altering filters that skew students’ feelings of self-worth.”

As part of the proposed agreement, which still requires a federal judge’s approval, Meta would impose a daily time limit of two hours for users under 18. That limit could be reduced to one hour if other social media companies also agree to similar restrictions.

Other changes would include hiding likes and reactions from users under 18, ending notifications to underage users overnight and during typical school hours, creating a mechanism for teenagers to report harmful content, and responding to 90 percent of harmful-content reports within six hours.

In addition, Meta would conduct a broad review and improve its safety protections for teenagers.

Sunday said an auditor will oversee Meta’s implementation of the protections. He said Meta has already implemented similar safeguards in other countries.

The changes are expected to begin taking effect within 30 days and be fully implemented within six months.

The attorneys general said Meta knew its products could harm children’s mental health but continued promoting them despite internal research documenting the alleged harms.

The case has been compared with past litigation against the tobacco industry.

Opening statements in the trial began last week in a federal courtroom in California, with a long trial expected.

The case was one of a series of bellwether lawsuits testing allegations that major technology companies deliberately marketed products to children while knowing the products could damage their mental health.

Kate Ruane, the director of the Free Expression Project at the Center for Democracy and Technology, a civil rights organization, said safe and age-appropriate online experiences are important for children but raised concerns about the settlement’s potential effects on privacy and free expression.

“But we also see the potential for significant risks to everyone’s privacy and free expression rights online, especially in the ways this settlement will subject all users to invasive age assurance and limit all kids’ access to content and services regardless of their individual needs,” Ruane said in a statement.

Meta lost a similar lawsuit in New Mexico this year. That case is not part of the settlement.

Meta and other social media and technology companies continue to face lawsuits from parents and school districts across the country with similar claims.

The Bucks County District Attorney’s Office and Bucks County government have filed a similar lawsuit against Meta that is not part of the settlement, according to spokespeople.

The nationwide investigation into the social media industry began in 2021 when nearly every state attorney general cooperated to examine allegations that platforms were designed and promoted to children and teenagers despite known harms.

After the bipartisan investigation, attorneys general alleged that Meta designed Instagram features to addict children, documented resulting mental health harms internally and failed to warn parents. The attorneys general subsequently sued Meta individually or as part of a consolidated federal lawsuit.

The settlement also resolves the states’ claims that Meta shared nonpublic information about Facebook users with third parties, including Cambridge Analytica, leading up to the 2016 election.