Wisconsin Will Get at Least $219 Million From Settlement With Meta
Could hit $313 million. One of the largest such settlements ever received, says Attorney General Kaul.
Facebook. Photo by Anthony Quintano. (CC BY 2.0)
Wisconsin expects to get hundreds of millions of dollars from a recently announced settlement with the company that owns Instagram and Facebook.
That’s after multiple states sued, accusing Meta of harming kids’ mental health. Among other allegations, the lawsuit contended that Meta designed its apps to be addictive to children, and that it hid known risks from parents and the public.
In all, the states that sued will receive up to $17 billion over 10 years. For its share, Wisconsin will get at least $219 million, and could receive up to $313 million, according to Wisconsin’s Department of Justice.
The total payout is one of the largest consumer protection settlements ever reached between states and a single company — second only to settlements with tobacco companies, Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul said.
“What I’m going to be doing is everything I can to put these funds toward keeping kids safe in Wisconsin,” Kaul told reporters on Wednesday.
The proposed settlement says that at least 50 percent of Wisconsin’s payout must go to promoting youth mental health and to addressing harms caused by social media. It also says that allocating Wisconsin’s share is under the “sole discretion of the (state) Attorney General.”
The multi-state agreement gives several examples of what states can spend the money on, including:
- Youth mental health programing
- Support the hiring of digital literacy counselors or implementing phone-free school zones
- Crisis intervention services, specifically the expansion and operation of the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline and text-based youth crisis lines
- After school or summer programs, such as sports, literacy, dance and other activities
- Public health advertising
Facebook and Instagram users are supposed to be at least 13 years old, but many young kids get around those restrictions. As part of the agreement Meta has promised to impose stronger age verification measures.
For users between 13 and 17, the company has also agreed to make changes including disabling “cosmetic surgery and extreme makeup filters,” commonly referred to as beauty filters. For those young users, Meta says most notifications will be muted by default during school hours and that there will be a mandatory daily limit of two hours, for Instagram and Facebook combined. That time cap can only be turned off with a parent’s permission, according to Meta.
“The goal of that is to help interrupt what my kids would refer to as doomscrolling,” Kaul said, adding that Meta has agreed to make many of the changes within six months.
“Ensuring teens have a safe and productive experience on our platforms is an absolute imperative for Meta,” the company said in a statement on Wednesday. “We want to get this right for parents and teens, and that’s why we partnered with state attorneys general to set a new industry standard.”
The agreement is pending approval by a federal judge. It involves 47 states, the District of Colombia and several U.S. territories.
During a news conference Wednesday, Kaul urged other social media companies to adopt the changes underlined in Meta’s settlement.
“They are on notice,” Kaul said. “They are going to be held accountable for the conduct they’re engaging in.”
Wisconsin to get more than $200M from settlement with Meta was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.
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