Meta settlement backs competitors into a corner on kids safety 

Meta’s settlement with nearly every state in the country is putting some of its biggest competitors on notice as the Instagram and Facebook parent firm tries to steer an industry standard on kids online safety.

After years of scrutiny, the company agreed to pay billions of dollars to states and make significant changes to better protect kids on its platforms, but not without putting the spotlight on competitors TikTok and YouTube to do the same. 

In announcing the settlement, Meta published an open letter calling on YouTube and TikTok to “follow their lead,” arguing it is the way for “meaningful progress to happen.” Full-page print advertisements on the letter are running in major newspapers throughout the weekend. 

While the letter publicly calls out the company, multiple platform changes and monetary awards in the settlement are contingent on other platforms’ responses. 

“If you are a target, you want to show that this is a much larger, insidious challenge, and that you are one of many and that you shouldn’t alone be called out,” said Eric Schiffer, CEO of Patriarch Organization, a technology and media private equity firm.

“And in the process, you are ensuring that others may contribute financially, as well as influence resolving the matter as a whole,” Schiffer added, calling the move “strategically sound.” 

This past week’s settlement effectively ended a high-profile trial in California deciding whether Meta knowingly designed its platforms to keep minor users addicted and misled the public about the apps’ risks.

The settlement allows Meta to position itself in the national kids online safety fight more favorably after being hammered by parents and lawmakers for years over its platforms’ impact on young users’ physical and mental health.

“Meta wants to control the variables,” Schiffer said.

Under the settlement with 47 states, the District of Columbia and some U.S. territories, Meta will pay up to $17 billion in the next decade. Separately, Meta will pay Texas more than $1 billion over similar allegations, bringing the company’s total potential sum to just more than $18 billion. 

This money will go to state efforts to prevent or reduce mental health or other harms associated with social media use. 

But........

© The Hill