Meta settles social media addiction case with California, other states for $16.7 billion

JUST IN: Meta settles social media addiction case with California and other US states for $16.7 billion, resolving allegations it misrepresented the mental health harms of its platforms on children.

Meta just agreed to pay sixteen point seven billion dollars over kids and social media.

That settles the case brought by a bipartisan coalition of fifty one attorneys general, who said Meta misrepresented what Facebook and Instagram were doing to children's mental health. The trial was in its second week in Oakland, and you can see the scene here. Then, suddenly, a deal.

And it's not just money. Teenagers get daily usage limits and nighttime blocks, plus tougher age checks to keep kids off entirely. California's Rob Bonta could take home up to two point one billion for his state, and he says the changes land within months. There's even a clause that hands the states another five billion or so if YouTube and TikTok adopt the same limits. Meta wrote the pressure on its rivals into its own settlement.

And the market's verdict on a ten billion dollar legal charge? The stock went up five percent. Certainty, it turns out, is worth more than the fine.

This is Sara White, reporting for HIT.