ATTORNEY GENERAL RAOUL ANNOUNCES BIPARTISAN SETTLEMENT WITH META

ATTORNEY GENERAL RAOUL ANNOUNCES BIPARTISAN SETTLEMENT WITH META

August 26, 2026

Download a broadcast quality video file of Attorney General Raoul's remarks here.

Meta to Pay up to $17 Billion and Implement Sweeping Child-Safety Reforms on Instagram and Facebook under Largest Big Tech Settlement in History

Chicago - Chicago Attorney General Kwame Raoul announced an up to $17.1 billion multistate settlement with Meta Platforms Inc., which is among the largest state consumer protection settlements in history. In addition to the payment, Meta must implement significant safety features designed to protect children on Instagram and Facebook.

The agreement, which is subject to court approval, resolves claims that the company designed its social media platforms with addictive features, knowingly exposed young users to serious mental health harms and intentionally misled the public about the safety of its platforms, among other things. Under the settlement, Illinois will receive up to nearly $768 million.

"This is a monumental victory for online safety that will affect an entire generation of young people. After decades of putting profits before the health and wellness of children, this landmark settlement requires Meta to put our children's safety and mental health at the forefront," Raoul said. "It is imperative that all social media apps protect our children, and I will continue working with my colleagues toward that end. This settlement sends a message that we will not hesitate to take action to protect children online. I am deeply proud of and grateful to my team for the role my office played in helping lead this case to resolution."

Raoul's office played an integral role in getting this case to court, preparing it for trial, and negotiating this historic settlement. In October 2023, Raoul and a bipartisan coalition of attorneys general filed a lawsuit against Meta following a multi-year nationwide investigation. The states alleged that Meta deliberately designed its platforms to exploit young users' vulnerabilities, foster compulsive use, and maximize the time young people spend on Facebook and Instagram. Raoul and the attorneys general also alleged that Meta knew about harm to young users but deceived users, parents and the public about the risks. The lawsuit further alleged that Meta illegally collected personal information from children under 13 without their parents' consent, in violation of the federal Children's Online Privacy Protection Act.

The settlement includes groundbreaking changes to Instagram and Facebook that are more significant and comprehensive than those previously ordered by any court. These measures have the potential to fundamentally transform how the entire social media industry designs products for children and teens.

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

• Daily time limits and "Productive Pauses" for children: for its two platforms, Instagram and Facebook, a combined 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.
• Nighttime blocks restricting children's access to content feeds and turning off notifications from 12:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m.
• School-time limitations, eliminating push notifications on weekdays from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. during the school year.
• Robust age assurance measures to more effectively verify the age of young users.
• Safer, age-appropriate content controls, including stronger safeguards against bullying, content promoting eating disorders, and content related to suicide and self-harm.
• Stronger, more user-friendly parental controls.
• Limits on social comparison features including turning off visible "like" counts for teens.
• Turning off teens' access to beauty filters that mimic cosmetic surgery or change skin tone.
• An independent auditor that will evaluate the implementation and efficacy of the settlement's injunctive relief terms for five years.

This settlement is Raoul's latest action to hold social media platforms accountable for the harm they have caused young people. In 2024, Raoul filed a lawsuit against TikTok for its harmful business practices targeting children and allegedly deceiving the public about the social media platform's dangers.

Earlier this year, Raoul and a bipartisan coalition of attorneys general demanded that xAI, the company that owns both the X social media platform and the AI chatbot Grok, take action to prevent Grok from generating nonconsensual intimate images and child sexual abuse material. In 2025, Raoul co-led a coalition calling on major artificial intelligence (AI) companies to ensure that AI chatbots do not engage in sexually inappropriate conversations with children. Also in 2025, Raoul and a coalition of attorneys general called on the industry to address sycophantic and delusional outputs from AI chatbots and the dangers they present to children and vulnerable people. Raoul and a bipartisan coalition of attorneys general called on Congress to pass legislation requiring a U.S. surgeon general warning on all algorithm-driven social media platforms in 2024.

Joining Raoul in the settlement with Meta are the attorneys general of Alabama, Alaska, American Samoa, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Northern Mariana Islands, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.

Division Chief Susan Ellis, Bureau Chiefs Greg Grzeskiewicz and Elizabeth Blackston; Deputy Bureau Chief Jacob Gilbert; Consumer Counsel Adam Sokol; Supervising Attorney Matthew Davies; Senior Assistant Attorney General Amanda Bacoyanis; and Assistant Attorneys General Meera Khan, Daniel Roth, Emily Migliore, Hal Dworkin, Marrian Daniel, Armeen Siddiqui-Mirza, Tyler Paladino, Wilton Person, Joseph Garza and Eric Hugo worked on the settlement for Raoul's Consumer Fraud Division.