California says states, Meta agree to $17 billion settlement in child safety trial

The social media giant also agreed to make sweeping changes to Instagram and Facebook.

Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta has agreed to pay up to $16.68 billion as part of a historic settlement with 29 state attorneys general who alleged the company purposely built Instagram and Facebook to addict kids.

Mark Zuckerberg. | Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images Meta settled its latest kids online safety trial with a group of 29 state attorneys general, sparing it from the remainder of a trial that could have cost it hundreds of billions of dollars. Under the terms of the settlement, Meta agreed to come up wi

Meta agreed to settle with U.S. states in a landmark lawsuit over allegations Facebook and Instagram were designed in ways that harm children. The big picture: The company agreed to provide compensation to the states for a variety of public health purposes, including crisis intervention services, after-school programs,