TALLAHASSEE, Florida — On the heels of a nearly $17 billion multistate settlement with Meta it didn’t participate in, Florida is now pressing the social media giant to do more to tighten child safety features.
After rejecting a major settlement with the company behind popular apps like Facebook and Instagram, Florida, led by Attorney General James Uthmeier (R), on Wednesday asked a judge to compel Meta to tighten its guardrails for kids. Florida notably is trying to push Meta into working harder and faster to remove accounts used by children while also seeking to scrap accounts for all kids younger than 14 years old, compared to the 13-years-old marker in other states.
“Meta already told America these kinds of changes are the new industry standard. Florida kids should not be last in line,” Uthmeier said in a video posted on social media. “Parents, you were the first line of defense. We have your back, and we’ll bring accountability to Big Tech for preying upon our kids.”
In response to Uthmeier’s new legal action, Meta officials touted the settlement with other states as a “historic landmark agreement to support teens and empower parents” while urging Florida to focus its legal efforts on policing other social media apps.
“This agreement won’t succeed until our industry peers join us. We know that restricting one platform simply causes teens to migrate to others. The Attorney General should be using taxpayer resources to get YouTube and TikTok to empower parents and protect teens in Florida,” a Meta spokesperson said in a statement. “We regret that he has chosen instead to pursue a meritless preliminary injunction years into the litigation. The state cannot both claim the benefits of a settlement Florida declined to join while continuing to sue us.”
A frequent adversary of Big Tech, Florida was one of only three states to deny Meta’s landmark settlement expected to spur sweeping new restrictions for the company’s social media apps while also paying out billions of dollars over the next decade. Texas and New Mexico, meanwhile, reached their own separate settlements with Meta, clocking in at $1 billion and $942 million, respectively.
The outcome was celebrated by many including California Attorney General Rob Bonta (D), who said the settlement would usher in “massive transformations that will reduce the risk of harm.” But Uthmeier took a hard line in rebuffing the deal, arguing it’s only a “mere slap on the wrist” that “will be cynically viewed as the cost of doing business” for a company valued at nearly $1.5 trillion.
As such, Uthmeier is fighting to bring Florida’s lawsuit against Meta to court and on Wednesday sought an injunction to spur the company into action. Florida initially sued Meta in 2024 through a lawsuit from then-Attorney General Ashley Moody (R) contending the company knew its social media apps were having negative effects on children and misled the public about them.
The state passed a strict social media law in 2024 prohibiting children younger than 14 from using many platforms while requiring parental approval for young people aged 14 and 15. The online restrictions aligned Florida with several other states attempting to limit minors using “addictive” apps officials consider harmful to young people’s mental health. In June, Uthmeier sued TikTok for allegedly violating this law, which the attorney general claims could net “potentially billions in damages.”
In this latest volley against Meta, some of the asks from Uthmeier overlap with the new guidelines for children triggered by the multistate settlement. Florida’s attorney general is asking the company to “turn off the features that hook teenagers” such as public “like” counts on posts and putting a two-hour cap on kids using Meta apps, which are part of the settlement other states approved.
In one notable distinction, though, Uthmeier wants a court to apply more pressure on Meta to target accounts for removal. In his complaint, the attorney general notes that Meta established its own annual goal for rooting out and removing accounts associated with children as a “reasonably achievable number” while “the only apparent consequence of missing it is explaining the shortfall to an auditor.”
To that end, Uthmeier is asking for Meta to give regular updates to the court on its removal process, including the number of suspected or known underage user accounts the company deleted and the reason why other possible remaining accounts were not suspended or deleted.
Florida, under its Republican-dominated Legislature and Cabinet, is embroiled in several high-profile legal fights with tech and social media firms, including a recent lawsuit Uthmeier is waging against OpenAI and its ChatGPT bot.
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