A banner with names of young people who advocates say died as a result of social media, outside a U.S. Courthouse in Oakland, Calif., on Aug. 18.Noah Berger/The Associated Press
A landmark social media trial was settled Wednesday, as Meta Platforms Inc. faced dozens of U.S. states that have accused the company of violating federal law by improperly collecting and using children’s personal data.
Meta could have forced to pay out more than US$1-trillion if found liable, but settled for $17-billion. Here’s a breakdown of the trial, and how the proposed settlement could affect Canadians.
Why was Meta being sued?
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg during a U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, in Washington, in January, 2024.BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images
A bipartisan group of 29 U.S. states sued Meta Platforms, seeking potentially tens of billions or even hundreds of billions of dollars in penalties plus changes to how Meta does business.
The 233-page lawsuit, filed three years ago, alleges Meta falsely represents that its features are safe and not designed to induce compulsive and extended engagement by young users. It cites features and metrics such as likes, face and body image manipulation filters, infinite scroll and autoplay as some of the addictive measures geared toward children.
The lawsuit also claims that Meta “understands the cyclical and harmful nature of its psychologically manipulative features, but persists in subjecting young users to those features, choosing to downplay and deny the harmful aspects of its Platforms instead of correcting those problems.”
Meta chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg was expected to testify.
Meta denied the accusations. “We’ve built safeguards into our platforms to support parents, and to help teens connect with their friends and explore their interests, in a protected environment,” it said in a statement released earlier this month. “We’ve consulted with parents, policymakers and safety experts throughout this process to ensure their expertise informs the changes we make.”
The case was being compared with the lawsuits that led to the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement in 1998. That resolution was between 46 U.S. states and the four largest U.S. tobacco companies, which agreed to change marketing tactics and pay states for medical expenses directly related to smoking.
What will come out of the settlement?
Under the proposed settlement, Meta Platforms has agreed to pay US$17-billion and add child-safety measures to its Facebook and Instagram platforms to end a landmark trial. Meta agreed to adopt a series of safety features, including a “hard cap” on daily time limits and pauses for children using Instagram and Facebook.
“For years, Meta intentionally deceived the public about the addictive and harmful design features that have wreaked havoc on youth mental health,” Attorney General Jay Jones said in a statement. The settlement “will put an end to these dangerous practices and deliver meaningful relief that will protect children from online harm.”
It will eliminate push notifications during weekday school hours and bring in “robust” age assurance measures and “age-appropriate” content controls to prevent bullying and harmful material about eating disorders and self-harm.
There will be stronger and more user-friendly parental controls and limits on social comparison features such as “like” counts.
But the new child protection measures Meta has promised as part of a massive legal settlement in the United States won’t be implemented in Canada.
A spokesperson for Meta says the changes to its Facebook and Instagram platforms announced are specific to the United States.
How could this case affect Canadians?
The decision made in California could ultimately affect how social platforms are designed.
Since March, 2024, 14 Ontario school boards and individual schools have initiated lawsuits against Meta, Snapchat and Tiktok, alleging the platforms are negligently designed for compulsive use and have rewired the way children think, behave and learn. The lawsuits - put forward by some of the country’s largest school boards including Toronto and Ottawa - cleared a major hurdle in March, 2025, after a judge struck down the social media giants’ motion to dismiss the case.
“The statistics, if true, and the methods and outcomes of social media on the learning environment reveal broad effects that impact not only the immediate access to the right to an education, but to the futures of many young people,” wrote Ontario Superior Court Justice Janet Leiper in her decision.
“It is arguable that an addictive product that interferes with the mental health and educational aspirations of students is a public nuisance that requires a remedy.”
The plaintiffs are seeking more than $8 billion in damages, and they are calling on the social media companies to redesign their platforms to keep students safe.
Separately, Ottawa introduced Bill C-34 - the Safe Social Media Act - which would block users under 16 from having social media accounts. A company could seek an exemption if it “provides adequate safeguards in the regulated social media service,” the bill states. It followed a similar bill introduced in Australia in 2025.
Meta has blocked Canadian news on Facebook and Instagram since 2023, in response to Bill C-18 (the Online News Act). The act requires digital platforms to pay news companies for news stories posted on their platforms. In January, Ottawa was in talks with Meta to reinstate news on the platforms.
Hasn’t Meta been sued for this already?
The lawsuit is one of more than 3,000 lawsuits filed by school districts, individuals and others in federal court against Meta, Snap Inc., YouTube parent Alphabet Inc. and TikTok parent ByteDance Ltd.
A second group of more than 3,300 lawsuits brought largely by individuals against the companies is pending in a Los Angeles state court.
Trials in two cases that have already gone to juries resulted in verdicts against Meta. Earlier in August, a New Mexico judge ordered the company to pay US$567-million and make changes to its platforms after finding the company responsible for fuelling a children’s mental health crisis in the state. The company also settled a lawsuit brought by a Kentucky school district that had been slated for trial in June, with the terms publicly unknown.
With reports from Marie Woolf, Reuters, the Associated Press and the Canadian Press