Meta's spin, following the settlement in the addiction lawsuit: calling on YouTube and TikTok to protect adolescents
Following a historic settlement, Meta is shifting the narrative by calling on YouTube and TikTok to strengthen adolescent protections. The company is positioning itself as a leader in user safety despite widespread skepticism.
After the historic settlement agreement, Meta is flipping the narrative and turning its heavy artillery on YouTube and TikTok with a demand to strengthen protections for adolescents. Last week, Meta signed a settlement agreement in a lawsuit filed against it by 29 US states, alleging that the company harmed the privacy of young users and integrated addictive features into its platforms.
According to the agreement, Meta will pay all US states up to 18 billion dollars over ten years and will implement changes on Facebook and Instagram, including limiting minors' usage to two hours a day, a restricted night mode, stronger age verification mechanisms, and improved parental control tools. Exceptionally, the settlement agreement conditions the transfer of 30% of the compensation amount on YouTube and TikTok also jointly transferring an identical amount — 5.3 billion dollars — and implementing similar measures on their platforms.
Now, Meta is using this caveat to create a spin against rival companies and present itself as a protector of adolescents. According to a Bloomberg report, over the weekend the company published full-page ads in leading US newspapers, in which it calls on YouTube and TikTok to strengthen protections for adolescents.
«We want to ensure that adolescents benefit from this new industry standard, but we cannot do it alone. These protections will only be truly effective if we work with our peers — TikTok and YouTube — to implement the same measures. To achieve significant progress, we urge our peers to join us.»
Among others, Meta published the call in the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, and New York Post. In these ads, Meta tries to paint itself as a pioneer in protecting adolescents and as acting out of genuine concern for their well-being. However, this is nothing more than a transparent spin. The settlement agreement is a victory not for adolescents and users, but for Meta itself: the company is paying a marginal amount relative to its revenues and implementing changes whose effectiveness is questionable, even if they are implemented by other platforms. Thus, for example, a two-hour limit on each of the platforms still allows for six hours of daily social media usage. As a result, Meta is released from a threatening lawsuit and can now present itself as acting for the benefit of adolescents, instead of as one of the main parties responsible for the damages caused.
