Tennessee AG Announces ‘Largest Big Tech Settlement in History’
Tennessee Today
(Askar/Adobe Stock)
On Wednesday, Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti announced a $17.1 billion settlement with Big Tech giant Meta. Beyond the monetary aspect of the settlement, the terms require Meta to implement a variety of safety features across their social media platforms aimed at protecting children.
In the settlement, Tennessee will receive approximately $752 million. Beyond the Volunteer State, the deal resolves issues brought forth by 46 additional states, as well as D.C, Puerto Rico, American Samoa, and the Northern Mariana Islands.
The agreement requires Meta to implement safety features for minors on both Instagram and Facebook. Some of these features include “productive pauses”(mandatory breaks after a set time of continuous use), a 2 hour daily limit between Facebook and Instagram, restricted access to the platforms between 12:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m. for children, age verifications, more user friendly parental controls, and more.
Regarding the settlement, Attorney General Skrmetti said, “We took Meta to trial because Instagram was hurting kids and misleading parents. Now we’re ending the trial with a settlement that imposes unprecedented protections for kids and delivers record-setting money for Tennessee’s Children’s Digital Protection Fund.”
Skrmetti praised the settlement as the best possible solution that could be achieved via litigation, but called for “federal legislation that clearly imposes a duty of care on every tech company that interacts with kids” if the issue is to be fully resolved.
Tennessee gubernatorial candidate Marsha Blackburn has led the fight in the United States Senate for increased online safety guardrails for youth. She co-sponsors the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), a hallmark piece of her legislative agenda that seeks to provide kids and their parents with the tools, transparency, and safeguards they need to protect against online harms.
In response to Skrmetti’s announcement, Blackburn stated on X, “This settlement proves what we’ve said for years. Big Tech prioritizes profit over our kids’ safety, and it’s time for Congress to pass the Kids Online Safety Act to finally hold these companies accountable and protect the next generation.”
This settlement marks a major turning point in the ability to hold Big Tech companies accountable for the effects of their platforms.