Meta settlement sets precedent for social media giants

Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, has agreed to pay US states a total of 18 billion dollars over the next 10 years in damages in a case involving services accused of making children and young people addicted, ERR reports. Experts said the agreement will also restrict young people’s use of social media, but the measures may not deter them.

Under the agreement submitted to the court, Meta must set a default daily usage limit of two hours for users under 18. Minors will not be shown the number of likes or reactions on posts by default, and they will be unable to use facial filters that imitate cosmetic surgery.

Meta must also offer them a news feed that is not personalised by algorithms. Unlike the time limit, however, choosing that option will remain up to the user.

Gretel Juhansoo, a media literacy specialist at the University of Tartu, said Meta had previously refused to acknowledge that its services were addictive. The company also rejected the allegations during the trial that has now ended.

Juhansoo said the agreement therefore did not show that Meta had acted out of goodwill, but rather reflected the impact of public pressure.

Maia Klaassen, a junior research fellow in media literacy at the University of Tartu, said Meta had expected the jury to find it guilty. Otherwise, she said, the company would not have pursued a settlement with all the states that had filed complaints, but would have continued the court proceedings.

The trial itself has been regarded as an important precedent.

“In my view, this case shows how cynically Meta has operated over all these years, because now that the threat of a sufficiently large financial penalty emerged, it suddenly discovered that protective mechanisms had in fact existed all along,” Klaassen said.

There are several ways to verify users’ ages, and a combination of methods will probably be used, said Merlin Liis-Toomela, head of data protection and information technology law at the law firm Ellex Raidla.

The simplest method would be for users to enter their date of birth. Its weakness is that it is easy to lie, as a child can readily identify themselves as an adult.

Liis-Toomela considers artificial intelligence based age assessment the most realistic option. Social media platforms already hold a wide range of information about users, including account history, post content, social networks and usage patterns. Artificial intelligence could use this data to assess whether an account holder is probably a child or an adult.

“If the system suspects that the user is actually a minor, it can direct the user to prove their age as the next step,” she said.

This could be done, for example, by submitting an identity document, although it is not yet clear exactly how the process will work.

“The agreement also takes into account that the system cannot and does not have to be 100 percent accurate, and provides for a certain permitted margin of error,” Liis-Toomela said.