Minnesota to receive up to $307M in Meta social media addiction settlement, AG says
Minnesota will receive between $214 million to $307 million after tech giant Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, settled a landmark social media addiction lawsuit Wednesday.
As part of the settlement, which amounts to $17.1 billion paid across 47 states, Meta must install child safety measures such as daily time limits and mandatory pauses after continuous use. Wisconsin could receive up to $313 million, according to the state's Department of Justice.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, who joined a coalition of attorneys general to sue Meta in 2023, calls the development "the largest settlement in the history of Big Tech."
"You're probably wondering why it took so long to resolve the matter," Ellison said in a Wednesday morning news conference. "Meta tried every single procedural trick in the book to keep this from going to trial. We fought back and the courts knocked down every attempt that they made."
The suit accused Meta of using its social media platforms to "entice, engage and ultimately ensnare" young internet users. The settlement puts an end to the trial that kicked off last week in Oakland, California.
"Meta knew its platforms were harming kids. Meta knew that children were active on their platforms, including children under 13 who are prohibited from using the apps under Meta's own rules," Ellison said. "But instead of taking steps to make Instagram and Facebook safer to use, they targeted children for data collection, calling kids a 'valuable but untapped' user base."
Ellison said the settlement funds will be "given to us in chunks" that will be paid out over a nine-year span.
Minnesota DFL state Sen. Erin Maye Quade, the chief author of the new state law aiming to protect children online, says she applauds Meta's move, but says it's far from enough.
"Meta's profits come from the addiction it purposefully creates. Tech and social media companies owe society much more than $17 billion," Maye Quade said in a statement released Wednesday morning. "They have turned our children into their products and eroded the social frameworks that hold our society together."
What child safety measures must Meta implement?
According to Ellison, Meta is required to implement a series of safety measures to protect children between the ages of 13 and 17. Children under the age of 13 are already prohibited from using Meta's platforms.
Meta must set a combined 2-hour time limit for Instagram and Facebook and mandatory pauses after 15 minutes, 60 minutes and 90 minutes of scrolling, Ellison said. Children's access is also blocked from midnight to 6 a.m., and during the school year, push notifications will be turned off between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. on weekdays.
Ellison said Wednesday that while he gives credit to Meta for being "the first major platform to agree to such comprehensive safety features," he hopes this will lead to wider tech reforms.
"We don't want this to be the end of the story," he said. "It should be a signal to the entire social media industry that it's time to transform how they safeguard young people online. Let this settlement be a template for them to follow."
An independent auditor and settling states will assess Meta's implementation of the new features, according to Ellison.
