New Hampshire Announces Largest Social Media Settlement in History

CONCORD, NH - Today, Governor Kelly A. Ayotte and Attorney General John M. Formella announced a landmark $17.1 billion multistate settlement with Meta Platforms, Inc. Under the settlement, New Hampshire will receive up to $224,344,141 paid in ten equal installments.

In addition to the payment, Meta must implement a sweeping set of safety features designed to protect children on Instagram and Facebook. The agreement resolves claims by 47 other States and D.C., Guam, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands that the company designed Instagram and Facebook with addictive features, knowingly exposed young users to serious mental harms, and intentionally misled the public about the safety of its platforms, among other things. This settlement is an important step toward holding social media companies accountable for intentionally designing their platforms with manipulative features that foster excessive use and for deceiving the public about the harmful effects of those features on kids and teens.

"Nothing is more critical than protecting our children, and social media companies have fallen short of that mission," said Governor Ayotte. "With this settlement, we are taking an important step to hold them accountable and ensuring parents have the tools they need to keep their children safe online and safeguard children's mental health. I thank Attorney General Formella, the team at the New Hampshire Department of Justice who worked tirelessly on this case, and attorneys general across the country for demanding accountability from Meta and other social media platforms. We will ensure these dollars are used to continue efforts to protect children and support youth mental health services in our state, and we'll continue holding social media companies' feet to the fire to ensure they do their part."

"Children, young adults, and parents are no match for the powerful technological tools and design choices that Meta utilizes to keep kids on its platforms at all hours of the day and night. Though Meta has a history of making cosmetic safety changes, we have strived to ensure that the new default settings offered are meaningful, enforceable reforms that children will not be able to circumvent as easily as they have in the past," said Attorney General Formella. "While this settlement represents an important step in our efforts, our concerns about social media have always been about more than one company. Technology may change, but the principle does not: when companies put children at risk, they must be held accountable. New Hampshire will continue to work with our state partners to ensure social media companies live up to their obligations and that families have the information and tools they need to protect their children."

The settlement requires Meta to implement a series of safety features on Instagram and Facebook, including:

• Default daily time limits and "Productive Pauses" for children: across its two platforms, Instagram and Facebook, a combined default two-hour daily time limit with mandatory pauses after 15 minutes of continuous use and again at 60 and 90 minutes to interrupt endless scrolling. These limits remain in effect for five years. If Snapchat, TikTok, and YouTube adopt comparable terms, the daily limit on each platform will drop to 60 minutes for 10 years.
• Default "nighttime blocks" restricting children's access from 12:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m.
• Default limited school-time access for children, eliminating push notifications on weekdays from 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. during the school year.
• Age assurance measures to more effectively verify the age of young users, to deter kids under 13 from creating accounts, and to ensure teen users are properly identified.
• Improved content controls, including stronger measures against bullying, content promoting eating disorders, and content related to suicide and self-harm.
• Stronger, more user-friendly parental controls.
• The ability for parents and kids to limit social comparison features, including beauty filters mimicking cosmetic surgery and visible "like" counts, that have been linked to poor mental health outcomes in kids and teens.
• Both the implementation and efficacy of the features will be regularly assessed by an independent auditor and the settling states.

Through this settlement agreement, Meta has agreed to make changes to Instagram and Facebook that are more significant and comprehensive than previously ordered by any court. This settlement represents a significant step toward an industry-wide social media experience that allows our children to connect in a healthy way. There is more work to be done, and New Hampshire is committed to continuing to work with other stakeholders, including parents, educators, and caregivers, to protect our kids from the negative consequences of social media use.

Seventy percent of the amount (approximately $158 million) due under this settlement agreement is guaranteed. The remaining amount is contingent and will be paid to New Hampshire if other Core Industry Members become subject to certain injunctive and monetary terms within a specified period of time. The settlement agreement defines "Core Industry Members" as Snapchat, TikTok, and YouTube.

Beginning in 2021, nearly every attorney general in the country worked together to investigate the social media industry for promoting platforms with manipulative design features such as recommendation algorithms that were known to be unreasonably dangerous to children. The bipartisan, nationwide investigation found that Meta designed Instagram's features to encourage excessive and compulsive use, causing addiction in the most severely affected children, while internally documenting the resulting mental health harms and failing to warn parents. After the investigation, many states joined a federal consolidated lawsuit against Meta in California. New Hampshire was one of a handful of states that sued Meta in its own state court. This settlement resolves both our individual case and claims by the other settling states and territories. The settlement also resolves the states' claims against Meta for its sharing of nonpublic information about Facebook users with third parties, like Cambridge Analytica, leading up to the 2016 election.

The settlement terms have been agreed to by the parties but remain subject to approval by the court.

The New Hampshire Department of Justice Consumer Protection and Antitrust Bureau investigates unfair, deceptive, or unreasonable practices involving New Hampshire consumers. File a complaint with the New Hampshire Department of Justice here.