Arkansas is set to receive at least $172.4 million under a landmark settlement with Meta resolving litigation over allegations that Facebook and Instagram were designed in ways that harmed and addicted children.
Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin announced Wednesday that he and 50 other attorneys general reached the proposed settlement with Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram.
Arkansas’ guaranteed portion of the settlement is $172,459,936 and could increase depending on the final payments required under the agreement.
Griffin said the settlement marks the culmination of a fight Arkansas began more than three years ago.
In March 2023, two months after taking office, Griffin sued Meta under the Arkansas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, alleging the company misled children and their parents about the addictive nature of its platforms and the potential effects on young people’s mental health.
Arkansas was the first state to bring a lawsuit against Meta under a state deceptive trade practices law over those allegations, according to Griffin.
The case survived an effort by Meta to have portions of it dismissed in 2024, when a Polk County Circuit Court allowed Arkansas to continue pursuing claims that the company misled the public about the safety and addictiveness of its platforms.
Griffin said Meta had for years represented Facebook and Instagram as posing no risk to the mental health of young users while knowing its algorithms were designed to keep children engaged with the platforms for extended periods.
“This is a proud day for Arkansas,” Griffin said.
Griffin said Arkansas was the first state “through the litigation door,” but numerous states and territories eventually followed with their own legal challenges against the company.
In addition to the money Arkansas is expected to receive, the proposed settlement would require Meta to make significant changes to Facebook and Instagram for users under 18.
Children would be limited to a combined two hours per day on Facebook and Instagram, with exceptions for messaging features. The platforms would also require pauses intended to interrupt extended periods of scrolling, including reminders following continuous use.
Access for children would be blocked from midnight to 6 a.m., while push notifications would be restricted overnight and during school hours. Meta would also be required to implement stronger age-verification measures intended to more accurately identify young users.
Additional changes include stronger protections against content involving bullying, eating disorders, suicide and self-harm, along with expanded parental controls.
The agreement would also limit features associated with social comparison, including visible like counts and certain beauty filters. Young users and their parents would have options to use non-algorithmic feeds rather than feeds personalized to keep users engaged.
Many of the restrictions would remain in place for at least five years, and parents would generally have to give permission before a child could disable the protections. An independent auditor and the settling states would assess Meta’s implementation of the requirements and their effectiveness.
The settlement comes as Griffin has continued pursuing similar allegations against other major social media companies. In 2024, his office sued YouTube and its parent company Google, alleging the platform used addictive design features to attract young users despite harmful effects. At the time, Griffin’s office described that lawsuit as a continuation of cases brought against Meta and TikTok beginning in 2023.
Nationally, the scale of the Meta agreement could reach approximately $17.1 billion.
Meta is guaranteed to pay at least $12.1 billion to the participating states, with the total potentially increasing to approximately $17.1 billion if other major social media companies enter similar settlements with states.
Reuters reported the principal child-safety settlement carries a potential value of up to $16.68 billion. Meta also agreed to approximately $459.3 million to resolve separate state privacy litigation connected to the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
The national litigation accused Meta of designing Facebook and Instagram to encourage compulsive use among children, misleading users and parents about platform safety and improperly collecting personal information from children under 13 without parental consent.
The settlement was reached after a federal trial involving claims against Meta began earlier this month in California. That case was expected to last six to eight weeks after Meta unsuccessfully sought to prevent it from proceeding.
Meta has denied wrongdoing.
Griffin credited attorneys and staff in his office who worked on the case and described the settlement as a historic result for Arkansas and its children.
Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders also praised Arkansas’ role in the litigation, saying the settlement demonstrates the impact of states taking the lead in efforts to hold technology companies accountable for the effects of their platforms on children.
The agreement is not yet final. Although Meta and the attorneys general have agreed to its terms, the proposed settlement remains subject to court approval and will not take effect unless approved.
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