Vermont will receive more than $92.7 million from Meta under a sweeping multistate settlement resolving allegations that the social media giant knowingly designed Instagram with addictive features that harmed children and teenagers, Attorney General Charity Clark announced Wednesday.
The $92,700,152 settlement resolves Vermont’s 2023 lawsuit against Meta, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook. Vermont alleged the company knowingly exposed young users to serious mental-health harms while misleading the public about the safety of its platforms.
Nationally, Meta could pay as much as $17.1 billion under an agreement involving 48 states along with the District of Columbia and several U.S. territories.
About $12.2 billion — 70% of the potential total — is guaranteed, according to Clark’s office. The remaining 30% would become payable if other major social-media companies, including TikTok, YouTube and Snap, reach substantially similar agreements with the states.
The settlement, which remains subject to court approval, would also require significant changes to Instagram and Facebook for children. Among them is a combined two-hour daily limit on the two platforms, with mandatory “Productive Pauses” after 15 minutes of continuous use and again after 60 and 90 minutes. Those restrictions would remain in effect for five years.
Children also would be blocked from accessing the apps between midnight and 6 AM. Push notifications would be disabled from 10 PM to 7 AM and during school hours — 8 AM to 3 PM on weekdays during the school year.
Meta also would be required to strengthen age verification and parental controls and provide additional safeguards against bullying and content involving eating disorders, suicide and self-harm. The agreement would limit features associated with social comparison, including beauty filters and visible “like” counts.
An independent auditor and the participating states would regularly assess whether the measures are being implemented and are effective.
Clark sued Meta in Chittenden Superior Court in 2023 as part of a coordinated multistate investigation. Meta later sought dismissal on grounds that Vermont courts lacked jurisdiction over the California-based company, but Vermont courts rejected that argument. The U.S. Supreme Court declined in May to hear Meta’s appeal, leaving the Vermont Supreme Court ruling intact.
The settlement also resolves state claims concerning Meta’s sharing of nonpublic Facebook user information with third parties, including Cambridge Analytica, before the 2016 election.
Clark’s office characterized the national agreement as one of the largest state consumer-protection settlements in U.S. history outside the tobacco settlements of the 1990s.