Meta’s historic $18 billion deal to settle a federal lawsuit alleging it fueled a teen mental health crisis has a major caveat – its chief rivals TikTok and Google-owned YouTube must agree to make the same safety changes to their apps before Mark Zuckerberg will pay the full amount of the deal.
Under the bizarre clause, Meta is initially on the hook for 70% of the payment, or about $12.7 billion. The remaining 30%, which totals $5.3 billion, will be “released” only in the event that TikTok and YouTube pay a combined $5.3 billion and impose changes including a one-hour daily usage limit for teens, a “night mode” barring use during bedtime hours and age verification.
Meta went as far as publicly calling out its rivals in an open letter, writing that “these protections will only be truly effective if we work with our peers — TikTok and YouTube — to put the same measures in place.”
Both TikTok – which recently struck a sweetheart $400 million settlement with the Justice Department in a separate kids’ privacy lawsuit – and YouTube were staying silent about Meta’s call to action as of Wednesday afternoon, despite multiple requests for comment.
The $18 billion settlement was announced just days into a historic trial brought by the coalition of state attorneys general, who accused Meta of getting kids hooked on social media and ignoring harms like anxiety, depression and even suicide to protect their profits.
While the terms of the settlement were widely praised by online safety watchdogs, some advocates nevertheless took issue with some of the specifics – including the $5.3 billion carveout, a lack of action against Meta’s recommendation algorithms, and the fact that the agreement expires after 10 years.
“The fact that Meta doesn’t have to pay the full penalty unless its corporate rivals follow suit underscores that this settlement is not nearly enough to create a safer, less addictive internet,” said Fairplay executive director Josh Golin. “Families can’t wait for time-consuming, resource-intensive litigation against all the social media companies to be resolved.
“If Meta really cares about industry wide standards, they shouldn’t have spent the last 4 years lobbying against the Kids Online Safety Act,” Golin added, referring to a pending bill that would impose a legal duty of care to protect kids online.
Meanwhile, several state AGs are already turning up the pressure on Meta’s social media rivals to follow suit with the safety changes.
“To TikTok, YouTube and Snapchat — our expectations are clear. You’re next,” Connecticut Attorney General William Tong said in a statement.
