By Steven Allen Adams
For The Inter-Mountain
Charleston – The parent company behind Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp is prepared to settle a nationwide lawsuit for more than $17 billion, with West Virginia set to receive up to $114 million if a judge approves the deal.
West Virginia Attorney General J.B. McCuskey announced Wednesday morning that Meta Platforms Inc. settled a federal consumer protection lawsuit, resolving claims brought by 47 states and several U.S. territories, for $17.1 billion.
At a press conference, McCuskey said this pending agreement between Meta and the parties represented the largest state consumer protection settlement in U.S. history outside of the 1990s Big Tobacco settlements.
“We are really, really excited about what we’ve done here with Facebook. We think this is a landmark settlement,” McCuskey said.
The lawsuit came about after a bipartisan group of state attorneys general – including now West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey – investigated Meta, the company originally anchored by Facebook, in 2021 over claims that its properties, including WhatsApp and Instagram, were causing harm to children.
Using the company’s own internal documents, the investigation found that Meta knowingly included features in its social media platforms to make them addictive to children despite known mental health harms documented by the company. Multiple states filed lawsuits against Meta which were consolidated in 2023 into California v. Meta, heard in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California (Oakland).
Wednesday’s announced settlement still needs to be approved by a federal judge, but if agreed to, West Virginia could see up to $114.6 million. While a small portion of the award would go to the Attorney General’s Office to cover the costs of pursuing the case, the majority will go to the general revenue fund and be available for the Legislature to appropriate.
“West Virginia’s share of this settlement is going to be upwards of $114 million, which is an astronomical amount of money for our Legislature to be able to distribute and to spend in the furtherance of ensuring that our children’s mental health and their futures are bright,” McCuskey said.
According to McCuskey, Meta has also agreed to implement a number of features aimed at protecting children. These include a combined two-hour daily limit for Instagram and Facebook; mandatory interruptions after 15 minutes of continuous use, with additional pauses at the 60- and 90-minute marks; restricted access to Facebook and Instagram between midnight and 6 a.m.; and no push notifications during school hours between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m.
“What we have settled here today and what Meta has agreed to do is not just pay us $114 million, but to also make their platform better, more usable and importantly, safer for children,” McCuskey said.
“The hope here is that the extreme mental anguish, the suicide rates that are coming from these platforms, and the general overall usage of these platforms will decrease,” he continued. “And we will start to see our kids outside riding their bikes, interacting with each other in person, and doing all of the things that we all did as children a little bit more often. Because we know that playing outside is a lot better than scrolling on Facebook.”
Other features Meta agreed to implement include algorithm controls to ensure children only see content from those they follow on Facebook and Instagram, removal of beauty filters and visible “like” counts, stronger anti-bullying controls, robust age verification procedures, parent-friendly controls and independent auditing.
While praising his team at the Attorney General’s Office, McCuskey also thanked the groundwork laid for the case by Morrisey, who also praised the settlement in a statement Wednesday.
“Meta knew the immense physical and psychological toll its platforms were taking on young people, yet chose profit over the mental health and safety of our children,” Morrisey said. “(The settlement) sends an unmistakable message to Big Tech that no company, no matter how powerful, is immune from consumer protection laws or accountable oversight. … As Governor, I will continue to ensure our communities have the resources and protections needed to foster a safe, healthy environment for the next generation.”
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