Pairing Harms and Remedies in the Meta Settlement

In what has been described as social media’s “Big Tobacco moment,” Meta announced a settlement with 47 states, the District of Columbia, American Samoa, the Northern Mariana Islands, and Puerto Rico over claims that the company endangered children with intentionally addictive social media platforms. The company behind Facebook and Instagram agreed to pay up to roughly $17 billion and make major product changes, including daily time limits and “enhanced age assurance measures.” Notably, Meta pays the full $17+ billion only if competitors TikTok and YouTube agree to enact similar changes. The settlement runs 130 pages. Two sentences recap what the states alleged, and 20 pages set out what Meta will do. Nothing joins one to the other. The agreement provides that Meta’s obligations "are explicitly limited to the Settling States" and cannot "establish a standard of care for, or serve as precedent in" any non-participating state or any other country. Meta agreed to change its products on the condition that nobody treat those changes as an answer to anything.