Attorney General Ellison secures sweeping measures from Meta to protect children, in largest Big Tech settlement in history

Child-safety features include hard-cap daily time limits, nighttime blocks, limited school-time access, robust age-assurance measures, and more

Meta to pay Minnesota at least $214M and up to $307M as part of landmark national settlement worth up to $17.1B

Settlement resolves bipartisan 2023 lawsuit against Meta for knowingly designing and deploying harmful features on Instagram and other platforms to addict children and teens

August 26, 2026 (SAINT PAUL) — Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison today announced a landmark settlement worth up to $17.1 billion with Meta Platforms, Inc., the parent company of Facebook and Instagram. This is the largest Big Tech settlement in history and one of the largest state consumer-protection settlements in history. As part of the nationwide settlement — which comes in the context of the 2023 lawsuit that Attorney General Ellison and a bipartisan coalition of attorneys general filed against Meta, which is currently at trial — Meta must implement a sweeping set of safety features designed to protect children on its social-media platforms Instagram and Facebook. The agreement resolves claims that Minnesota and a coalition of 47 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, American Samoa, and the Northern Mariana Islands made that Meta designed its platform Instagram with addictive features, knowingly exposed young users to serious mental harms, and intentionally misled the public about the safety of its platforms, among other things. The settlement is subject to court approval.

Under the settlement, Meta will pay the settling states a minimum of $12.2 billion, and as much as $17.1 billion, depending on whether other social-media industry actors — including TikTok, Snapchat, and YouTube — agree to similar terms in any future settlements. Minnesota will receive a minimum of $214 million and could receive up to $307 million.

“It’s my job to protect Minnesota’s children from exploitation, including by massive corporations, and this settlement we’ve won represents a major victory for protecting Minnesota’s and America’s children,” Attorney General Ellison said. “The groundbreaking changes to Instagram and Facebook in this settlement are more comprehensive than any court has ordered so far. When fully implemented, they will create a safer and more healthy experience for our kids to connect through social media. While these changes are long overdue, I give Meta credit for being the first major platform to agree to a comprehensive resolution for youth safety online. I expect this settlement to set a template that will fundamentally transform how the whole social-media industry designs products for kids and teens and safeguards their experience. Keeping our kids safe online is my goal.”

The settlement requires Meta to implement a sweeping series of new safety features to protect children ages 13-17 on Instagram and Facebook, including: 

Children under age 13 are already prohibited from using Instagram and Facebook, and the updated age-assurance measures Attorney General Ellison and the coalition have secured in this settlement will prevent those controls from being circumvented.

An independent auditor and the settling states will regularly assess both the implementation and the efficacy of the new features.

Beginning in 2021, Attorney General Ellison joined nearly every attorney general in the country in calling on Meta to protect children. In May 2021, he joined a bipartisan coalition of 44 attorneys general in urging Facebook to abandon its plans to launch a version of Instagram for children under the age of 13. In November 2021, he joined a national, bipartisan investigation of Instagram, which found that Meta designed Instagram’s features to addict children while internally documenting the resulting mental-health harms and failing to warn parents about them. As a result, in October 2023, Attorney General Ellison joined a coalition of attorneys general in suing Meta as part of a consolidated federal lawsuit, while other states simultaneously sued Meta individually in their states’ courts. The multistate lawsuit that Attorney General Ellison joined went to trial last week. Today’s settlement is subject to approval of the federal district court in California, where the trial is being held. Once approved, this settlement resolves those cases and claims by the other settling states and territories.

The settlement also resolves the states’ claims against Meta for its sharing of nonpublic information about Facebook users with third parties, like Cambridge Analytica, leading up to the 2016 election. Minnesota will receive an additional $8.5 million as a result of this settlement.

Joining Attorney General Ellison in participating in this settlement are the attorneys general of Alabama, Alaska, American Samoa, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Northern Mariana Islands, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.

Attorney General Ellison’s strong, longstanding record of protecting young Minnesotans

The resolution today of the multistate lawsuit against Meta that Attorney General Ellison and nearly every state filed is the latest development in Attorney General Ellison’s strong and longstanding record of protecting young Minnesotans from harm and exploitation.

Holding social media companies accountable

In August 2025, Attorney General Ellison sued TikTok in state court for preying on young people with addictive algorithms and exploitative features and prioritizing its profit over young Minnesotans’ health at every turn. Attorney General Ellison further alleges in the lawsuit that TikTok has lied about the safety of its platform to the public and downplayed the risks it poses to young users, and that it operates an illegal money transmitter system through TikTok LIVE that allows the company to profit from the financial and sexual exploitation of children. In March 2026, Attorney General Ellison prevailed when the court denied in full TikTok’s motion to dismiss Minnesota’s lawsuit against it.  

In August 2025, Attorney General Ellison sharply criticized Instagram for creating a location sharing feature that allowed all users, including young people, to broadcast their exact location, and joined another bipartisan coalition of attorneys general in demanding Instagram change this feature to ensure minors cannot broadcast their location.

In February 2024, Attorney General Ellison’s office also produced the State of Minnesota’s first comprehensive “Report on Emerging Technology and Its Effects on Youth Well-Being.” The report details the harmful effects that emerging technologies, like social-media platforms and artificial intelligence, are having on young people in Minnesota and makes a series of recommendations for policymakers to create a safer and healthier online environment for children and teenagers. The report won a “Notable Document Award” from the National Council of State Legislatures.

In February 2025, Attorney General Ellison’s Office issued a follow-up report to the 2024 report, expanding on the prior report by delving more into the rapidly changing landscape of tools powered by artificial intelligence and how those tools are being used by and causing harm to children and teenagers.

Fighting youth vaping and nicotine addiction 

In December 2019, Attorney General Ellison sued e-cigarette maker Juul on behalf of the people of Minnesota for violating Minnesota’s consumer-protection laws, breaching its duty of reasonable care, and creating a public nuisance. The lawsuit detailed how JUUL developed sleek devices and flavors that were appealing to youth, and how JUUL’s youth-oriented marketing deceptively attracted and addicted young people. One year later, the state added JUUL’s parent company, Big Tobacco giant Altria, as a defendant.

In March 2023, the case went to trial and Attorney General Ellison delivered the opening statement on behalf of the state of Minnesota, which he led by saying that “Juul and Altria hooked Minnesotan children on e-cigarettes — so they could make money.” In mid-April 2025, at the end of a trial at which the State presented 11 witnesses in support of its claims against JUUL and Altria, the parties reached a settlement. Under the terms of the consent judgment, Juul and parent company Altria agreed to pay a total of $60.5 million to the State of Minnesota over an eight-year period, which makes Minnesota’s settlement with JUUL the largest per capita in the country. After Attorney General Ellison’s advocacy, the Minnesota Legislature dedicated all JUUL settlement funds to the fight against youth addiction to tobacco and nicotine products.

In August 2024, Attorney General Ellison sent a letter to more than 5,000 tobacco distributors and retailers, asking them to stop distributing, marketing, and selling unauthorized and illegal flavored tobacco products in Minnesota. The letter warned that the sale of distribution of unauthorized and illegal tobacco products may violate several Minnesota laws, including consumer protection laws and a new deceptive vapor law that prohibits the advertising, sale, or distribution of e-cigarettes that are described or depicted as imitating candy, desserts, or beverages that are commonly marketed to minors, that imitate school supplies, or that are based on or describe characters that appeal to minors.

In January 2025, the Attorney General subsequently sued High Light Vapes, a maker of e-cigarette products that mimicked highlighters and were designed to be easily concealable and usable by school-age children. The Attorney General resolved the lawsuit against High Light Vapes in April 2025, winning a court order banning the company from doing business in Minnesota.

In July 2026, Attorney General Ellison sued Loon for selling vapes that unlawfully appeal to minors in violation of Minnesota law, following his January 2025 announcement that he was investigating Loon for this behavior.