Meta settlement puts rivals' youth protections in focus
Meta's August agreement with a coalition of U.S. states includes a financial condition tied to changes by competing platforms. The company agreed to a settlement of up to $18 billion over claims that it misled the public about the harm its platforms posed to younger users, CNBC reported.
Meta said it would pay the states 70% of the settlement, about $12.7 billion, over 10 years. Its commitments for users under 18 include tighter age verification, a night mode and a daily two-hour usage limit that only a parent can lift. The other $5.3 billion, or 30%, is conditional on TikTok and Alphabet's YouTube making similar changes for younger users.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in August that California was already litigating against TikTok under consumer-protection laws. He, New York Attorney General Letitia James and 14 other state attorneys general filed that suit in 2024. Bonta also said California was communicating with Snap and hoped YouTube would come to the table.
TikTok faces state lawsuits and a privacy settlement
Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday brought a separate case against TikTok in August 2026. His 65-page complaint, filed in Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas, alleges that the app does not adequately protect children from age-inappropriate content or excessive use.
USA TODAY reported that 14 states and Washington, D.C., sued TikTok during 2024 and 2025. In August 2026, a Texas judge found that TikTok's filtering of content for children violated the state's consumer protection law.
TikTok and its Chinese parent, ByteDance, also agreed in August to pay $400 million to settle a lawsuit the U.S. Department of Justice filed in 2024. That case alleged violations of children's online privacy.
Court defeats for Meta as broader litigation proceeds
Before its multistate settlement, Meta faced two other significant court outcomes. In March 2026, the first social media addiction case to reach trial ended with a Los Angeles jury finding Meta and Alphabet's YouTube negligent. The jury awarded about $6 million to a young woman who said she had become addicted to Instagram and YouTube during childhood.
An August ruling in New Mexico found that Meta had created a public nuisance. The judge required the company to introduce youth-safety measures and pay $567 million into a teen mental health fund.
Federal litigation is proceeding against several platforms as well. On Aug. 10, 2026, the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected as premature an appeal by Meta and TikTok concerning a lower-court ruling on Section 230 immunity. The decision allowed more than 3,000 social media addiction lawsuits to proceed against Meta, Alphabet's Google, ByteDance's TikTok and Snap.
Snap settles during a Los Angeles trial
Attorneys representing two teenage plaintiffs said on Nov. 2, 2026, that Snap had settled their claims during a Los Angeles state-court bellwether trial. The teenagers had already reached settlements with Meta, TikTok and YouTube.
The next bellwether trials are scheduled to start in March 2027.
