Meta Platforms agreed to pay up to $17.1 billion to settle a landmark lawsuit brought by 29 states alleging the company deliberately engineered Facebook and Instagram to be addictive to children, marking the largest single payout in the company’s history and the biggest tech-industry settlement ever recorded. Meta posted $60.46 billion in net income on $200.97 billion in revenue for full-year 2025, meaning the settlement equals roughly 27% of one year’s profit and about 8% of annual revenue. As part of the deal, Meta agreed to nationwide safeguards for teen users, including a default two-hour daily time limit and nighttime blocks between midnight and 6 a.m. Meta denied wrongdoing and roughly $5 billion of the total is contingent on TikTok and YouTube adopting matching safety measures.
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