Meta just wrote California a very large check. The company agreed to pay $2.2 billion to settle a federal lawsuit alleging that Facebook and Instagram were intentionally designed to be addictive for minors and that the company illegally harvested children’s data.
The settlement, announced on August 26, came just days after the trial began in the US District Court for the Northern District of California. For context, the coalition of states behind the lawsuit had originally sought damages that could have ballooned to roughly $200 billion across the four leading plaintiff states.
What the lawsuit was actually about
A coalition of 29 state attorneys general, co-led by California Attorney General Rob Bonta, brought the case against Meta. The core allegations were twofold: that Meta designed its social media platforms with features specifically engineered to keep young users scrolling, and that it collected personal data from children in violation of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, better known as COPPA.
The lawsuit was originally filed in 2023, making this a years-long legal saga that finally reached the trial stage in Oakland. The fact that Meta settled just days into proceedings tells you something about how the company assessed its odds once jurors started hearing testimony.
