Meta Settlement with 52 US attorneys general (approx. 27 trillion won) also makes a midnight-to-6 a.m. block and school-hours notification muting defaults; 30% of the payout releases only if YouTube and TikTok adopt the same measures
Meta ended the child-safety lawsuits brought by US state attorneys general through a settlement. The agreement was filed on August 26 with the US District Court for the Northern District of California in Oakland. Approval by Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers is still pending.
The headline figure is up to about $18 billion (approx. 27 trillion won). Court filings put the multistate settlement at $16.68 billion (approx. 25 trillion won), with a separate Texas settlement of $1 billion (approx. 1.5 trillion won) on top. Payments are spread annually over ten years. The agreement contains no admission of wrongdoing.
The agreement also carries product terms. For users under 18, a two-hour daily cap, a block on access from midnight to 6 a.m., and muted notifications from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. all apply as defaults. Time on platform and exposure design are the inputs that feed Meta's advertising revenue. Meta reported $201 billion (approx. 302 trillion won) in revenue and $60 billion (approx. 90 trillion won) in net income for last year, according to the Financial Times (August 26).
$16.68bn multistate, $1bn Texas… the headline total differs by outlet
The total depends on who is counting. The Financial Times added the $16.68 billion multistate figure to the $1 billion Texas settlement for about $18 billion. The New York Times reported up to $17.1 billion (approx. 26 trillion won), splitting it into roughly $12 billion (approx. 18 trillion won) paid initially and $5 billion (approx. 8 trillion won) contingent. CNBC noted on August 26 that the $17.1 billion figure cited by some attorneys general includes $459 million (approx. 690 billion won) tied to the 2018 Cambridge Analytica matter, which is separate from the child-safety case. Meta's own newsroom states approximately $18 billion.