Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, agreed last week to a $17.6 billion settlement with 47 states and several U.S. territories over allegations that its social media algorithms have harmed children through addictive design. But critics say the deal is far weaker than it appears, and Florida has refused to sign on, choosing instead to continue its own lawsuit against the company at trial.
Under the terms of the agreement, Meta’s payments will be spread over ten years, and a portion of the total is contingent on competing platforms — including YouTube, TikTok and Snapchat — adopting the same child-safety changes. Meta has agreed to pay up to $5 billion more if its rivals make similar changes to their products.
Investigative journalist Peter Schweizer, discussing the settlement on his podcast The Drill Down, called it a favorable outcome for the company. “This is a massively good deal for Meta in terms of what they’re actually going to have to pay, and the fact that they didn’t admit to anything,” Schweizer said. “Why would these state attorney generals, who are supposed to be these fire-breathing protectors of their citizens, go along with such a terrible deal?”
Co-host Eric Eggers compared the settlement to the 1998 tobacco industry agreement, which totaled $200 billion. “Meta is getting off cheap, even if its competitors adopt the same safety changes to how they work for children,” Eggers said, noting that the fluctuating total reflects whether rival companies join in. “That’s literally the settlement.”
Florida Holds Out
Florida is not part of the multistate settlement. The state has a separate lawsuit against Meta that is currently at trial, and observers say the case is not going well for the company. Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier dismissed the national settlement after it was announced, telling CNBC, “That’s peanuts. That’s not sending a message.”
“We’ll go to court, we like to fight for our kids in Florida. We’re not going to bend over and capitulate,” Uthmeier said.
Schweizer said he agreed with Florida’s approach. “They should be held accountable for the products that they produce,” he said. “And they’re producing a product that is highly addictive.”
Questions Over Enforcement
Among the concessions in the multistate settlement, Meta agreed to add opt-out switches for teen feeds on Facebook and Instagram. Schweizer questioned how effective that measure would be. “How easy is it going to be for kids to go online and circumvent this feature that Meta will put in place?” he asked. “Meta has no incentive, from a business standpoint, to reduce the level of addiction. They want the level of addiction to increase because they make money based on the amount of time that you spend on their product.”
The hosts also pointed to Meta’s political spending, noting the company plans to spend roughly $65 million on efforts to advance its interests in artificial intelligence. Schweizer argued the AI systems behind Meta’s engagement algorithms are the same systems driving concerns about addictive design. “The addiction algorithms that they use to keep kids glued to the screen are created, curated, and maintained by AI,” he said. “So this is directly related to this addiction industry.”
Eggers cited a report from last month indicating that major AI companies have contributed to organizations that fund state attorney general campaigns, including the Republican Attorney General Association and the Democrat Attorney General Association. According to Eggers, OpenAI, Google, Meta and Amazon have each donated more than $2 million to attorney general campaigns since the start of last year.
“This is not a done issue, but I tell you that if what we just saw, this capitulation by the state AGs to Meta is any indication, none of these tech companies will have anything to worry about,” Schweizer said. “It’s going to be like paying a small tax to keep doing business.”
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