Alaska is set to receive up to $23 million from Meta Platforms over the next 10 years under a landmark $17 billion, multistate settlement agreement that would also require the company to implement a sweeping set of safety features for its social media platforms, aimed at protecting children from addictive features and harmful content.
The agreement was announced Aug. 26 that state officials are lauding as one of the biggest consumer protection settlements in history outside the Big Tobacco settlements of the 1990s.
Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, would be ordered to pay the up to a $17.1 billion penalty to 47 states, the District of Columbia and several U.S. territories. The final settlement remains subject to approval by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, where the case was filed.
Alaska leaders praised the announcement in a statement on Aug. 26.
“As a mom of two, I can’t tell you what a relief this settlement brings to me knowing there will be better safeguards on Meta’s platform to keep teens healthy and positively engaged,” said Acting Attorney General Cori Mills.
Gov. Mike Dunleavy called the settlement a “necessary and imperative step” to protecting children.
“Social media promised us connection and the ability to productively engage with each other in life’s joyful and mundane moments. What social media gave us was a generation of children scarred by bullying, harassment, doom-scrolling and predation,” Dunleavy wrote. “This is a good first step towards protecting our children from online dangers, and I hope we see more actions like this in the future.”
Mills also praised the work of attorneys general across the country “regardless of political party” and their consumer protection teams for pursuing the case. “It is only through that collaboration that settlements like this are possible,” she said.
The settlement ends a high-stakes lawsuit first filed in federal court in California in 2023, where states argued that Meta purposefully designed addictive social media features in order to maximize profits, illegally collected data on children and teens, and repeatedly misled the public about the harms of social media use.
Meta denies wrongdoing.
The company agreed to the settlement which requires major changes to Facebook and Instagram features for young users. That includes a daily two-hour time limit and frequent prompts to restrict endless scrolling; night time blocks from midnight to 6 a.m.; muted notifications during school hours; a choice of a non-algorithmic feed that is not personally tailored by Meta; hidden social comparison features, like beauty filters and “like” features, and others.
Under the settlement agreement, Meta sought similar restrictions on its competitors, TikTok and YouTube.
Meta agreed to pay out 70% of the settlement, $12.7 billion, to the states initially. The company agreed to pay the remaining 30%, or $17.1 billion total, only if TikTok and YouTube agree to implement a one-hour daily limit, night mode and age assurance measures. TikTok and YouTube must also agree to pay roughly $5.3 billion in penalties to states.
Alaska is expected to receive $16 million over the next 10 years, and up to $23 million if the other social media platforms agree to the terms, according to a spokesperson with the Alaska Department of Law.
Meta reports 3.9 billion active users on its social media apps each month, worldwide.
The company still faces thousands of lawsuits across the country from individuals and school districts accusing them of fueling harmful content and addiction in children, and inadequate safety features.
The Alaska Beacon is an independent, donor-funded news organization, online at Alaskabeacon.com.
