SHREVEPORT, La. (KSLA) – Louisiana is set to receive about $180 million from Meta as part of a settlement over allegations the company’s social media platforms targeted children with addictive content.
The attorney general says the money could help protect children online.
Largest settlement since tobacco case
The settlement is the largest consumer protection settlement in Louisiana since the Big Tobacco settlement in the 1990s. The lawsuit accused Meta of targeting kids with its algorithms and failing to meaningfully verify their ages. The settlement includes money and new safety protections for children.
“Louisiana’s part of that settlement is approximately $180 million that will be paid out over nine years. The first payment will be about $17 million,” Attorney General Liz Murrill said.
Where the money will go
The attorney general says most of the money is expected to go toward remediation, including enforcement, education and outreach, and mental health treatment and research.
“I think that we still have a huge problem in our state addressing some of the sex predators that are going after our kids online. And these applications have facilitated that epidemic problem in our community,” Murrill said.
She says some of the money could help strengthen law enforcement efforts to find online predators and protect children. She also wants parents and children to better understand how social media algorithms work and how they can lead to addictive content.
“We need to continue to educate children and parents about how to protect themselves from being exploited online, how to protect their own brains from the kind of addictive content that you see and the algorithms that are used to drive content to them that can be harmful to them,” Murrill said.
The attorney general says the state will have broad latitude in deciding how the money is used for remediation.
Additional lawsuits filed
The Meta settlement isn’t the end of the state’s fight. Louisiana has also filed lawsuits making similar allegations against companies including Roblox, TikTok, Snap and Discord.
“It all kind of comes back to the way these algorithms target our kids. They don’t meaningfully impose any kind of age verification,” Murrill said.
The settlement money will be paid to Louisiana over nine years, with the first payment expected to be about $17 million.
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