Compromise: Meta to pay up to $18 billion as part of the "addiction lawsuits" against Facebook and Instagram

Meta has agreed to pay up to $18 billion as part of a settlement in a massive lawsuit filed against it by 29 US states, alleging that the company violated the privacy of young users and integrated addictive features into its platforms. The settlement agreement was reached at the beginning of the second week of the trial against the company. In addition to paying compensation, Meta agreed to incorporate changes to features for young users on Facebook and Instagram, including a daily usage limit and blocking access during nighttime hours.

The trial, which began last week, focuses on claims that the tech giant designed Facebook and Instagram to be addictive for adolescent users. It is part of the "addiction lawsuits" — a term for thousands of lawsuits filed by private plaintiffs, families, and school districts in the US against social media platforms (Meta, TikTok, YouTube, and Snap), alleging they were designed to cause user addiction, particularly among the young, and led to mental and other harms.

The current lawsuit is led by the attorneys general of California, Colorado, Kentucky, and New Jersey. They claim that Meta violated their states' laws when it designed Facebook and Instagram to encourage compulsive behavior and prolonged use by young users, while creating a false impression regarding their safety.

The broader group of 29 states is suing Meta on the grounds that the company violated a federal law for the protection of children online by, among other things, collecting information from them without their parents' consent. A violation of the law carries a fine of $20,000 per violation — a sum that could grow significantly considering that Facebook and Instagram have millions of minor users and the activity of each one could include a large number of violations. According to Meta's own analysis, the fine that could be imposed on the company could reach $1.4 trillion.

Yesterday (Tuesday), the head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, testified in court, claiming that the platform had strengthened its protections for young users, but admitted that these changes did not reduce the extent of their use of the application. "There is no silver bullet for such problems," he said.

Before Mosseri, Francesco Pogo, Instagram's product design manager, took the witness stand. He was asked by the attorney representing the states whether Meta launched features like "Take a Break" and "Sleep Mode" on an opt-in model because the company knew that this model was much less effective than an opt-out model. Mr. Pogo agreed with the attorney's statement that he understands that people use tools less if they are not active by default.

In the first week of the trial, former Meta executive Arturo Bejar testified, stating that Meta had identified "a significant number of harms, including harms to young people," but did not make changes following the findings. He also testified that Meta presented data to the public that downplayed the extent of teenagers' exposure to violent or difficult content. According to him, the company reported that the risk of teenagers being exposed to such content was 0.01% to 0.02%, even though surveys it conducted itself and did not publish indicated a rate 100 to 400 times higher than the published figure.