States, including California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey, ending a lawsuit which the States had brought against the tech giant, accusing it of hiding harms caused by its platforms to children and deliberately using tactics to keep teens engaged or ‘addicted’ to its platforms. The settlement also came with certain conditions on how Meta should change its safety features on Instagram and Facebook. The story so far: On August 26, Meta reached a landmark settlement of up to $17.1 billion with 29 U.S.
It also alleged that the company deliberately designed platforms to be addictive in order to keep teens engaged, leading to mental health disorders such as depression, anxiety etc. The 233-page lawsuit, first filed against Meta in 2023, alleged that the company regularly collected data on children under the age of 13 without parental consent thus breaking various State and federal privacy laws.
The suit accused Meta of refusing to “abandon its use of known harmful features” and instead, focusing solely on profits and financial gain over the safety of children.
