Meta’s $17.1 billion settlement will be over 12-times larger than the second largest big tech privacy settlement in the past four years

Meta Corporation has reached a staggering $17.1 billion settlement over the course of a decade, in response to a landmark child-safety lawsuit filed by 29 state Attorneys General. This settlement, led by California's Rob Bonta, is expected to be 12 times larger than the second largest tech privacy settlement in the last four years.

The lawsuit alleged Meta deliberately designed its popular social media platforms, Instagram and Facebook, to encourage addictive behavior and expose younger users to severe mental health issues, despite misleading the public about the platform's safety measures. The settlement also involves significant changes to Meta's platform, such as a default two-hour daily time limit for under-18 users and the appointment of an independent auditor.

This settlement is the largest of its kind, significantly surpassing Meta's previous settlement of $1.4 billion in 2024. It is described as the largest state consumer-protection settlement outside of tobacco-related cases from the 1990s and the largest settlement reached with a single company in the New York attorney general's office, surpassing the previous $7.4 billion settlement in 2022 with Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family over the opioid crisis.