Meta will pay nearly $17 billion to avoid trial over minors' addiction to social networks

BarcelonaMeta avoids what would have been one of the biggest lawsuits in the history of social networks. The tech giant led by Mark Zuckerberg has reached an agreement with the 29 US states that had taken it to court over harm to minors on its social networks. The multinational will pay close to 16.7 billion dollars, about 14.3 billion euros at the current exchange rate, according to documentation presented to the court, obtained by Reuters.

This is a much lower amount than what the group had initially estimated, which would have inflated to 1.4 trillion dollars, according to Meta's own calculations. It also reduces the initial calculations by the prosecutors of the suing states for a possible fine, which were around 200 billion.

In addition to the payment, according to the same documentation, the company has agreed to implement changes to Facebook and Instagram to prevent addictive dynamics for minors. Among them, it would have to apply daily time limits, or nighttime blocks. The agreement comes amid a wave of lawsuits against digital platforms for their treatment of underage users and for their use of their data.