Arkansas to Get $172.4 Million in Meta’s $17.1 Billion Social Media Safety Pact

By the Arkansas Delta Informer Staff

Aug. 27, 2026 — Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin, along with a bipartisan group of attorneys general across 51 other states, territories, and the District of Columbia, reached an agreement with Facebook and Instagram’s parent company over litigation regarding the safety of children using social media platforms.

Meta Platforms Inc. announced the bipartisan agreement totaling $17.1 billion on Wednesday, more than three years after Arkansas was among the first states to file a lawsuit against the Silicon Valley social media giant. In a March 2023 lawsuit, the Arkansas AG alleged that Meta violated the state’s Deceptive Trade Practices Act by misleading minors and their parents about the addictive nature of its platforms’ algorithms.

“For years, Meta represented that its platforms posed no risk to the mental health of young people, all while knowing that its algorithms were designed to get kids hooked and to keep them online for as long as possible, with well-documented adverse mental health consequences,” Griffin said in a statement.

“This historic settlement is a testament to the hard work of states like Arkansas that led on this fight to protect kids online,” added Gov. Sarah Sanders. “We will continue to hold Big Tech accountable, and I am hopeful other social media companies will follow Meta’s lead accepting responsibility for the harm their platforms have done to kids and begin to right this wrong.”

The agreement includes a payment of approximately $18 billion, which can be used to fund youth online safety initiatives and other state priorities. The payment will be distributed in annual installments over 10 years. Participating states will receive approximately 70% (about $12.7 billion) of the total payment over the decade.

The remaining 30%, or $5.3 billion, will be released only after two specific conditions are met, including YouTube and TikTok implementing a one-hour Daily Limit, Night Mode, and age-assurance measures. YouTube and TikTok must also each pay an amount equal to 30%, with half of the remaining funds tied to those payments.

According to Griffin, Arkansas’s guaranteed share of the settlement will be $172.4 million and could be higher as the parties work toward final terms. The proposed settlement agreement also remains subject to court approval and will not take effect unless approved by a federal court.

In addition to the multi-billion-dollar payout, Meta must implement a sweeping set of safety features to protect children on Instagram and Facebook. Pending judicial approval, these protections and controls will automatically apply to under-18s on Instagram and Facebook in participating US states and territories. Most of the terms must remain in place for 10 years.

Those that will be required to implement on Facebook and Instagram include:

• Hard cap daily time limits and “Productive Pauses” for children: for its two platforms, Instagram and Facebook, a combined two-hour daily time limit with mandatory pauses after 15 minutes of continuous use and again at 60 and 90 minutes to interrupt endless scrolling. These limits remain in effect for five years.
• “Nighttime blocks” restricting children’s access from 12:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m.
• Limited school-time access for children, eliminating push notifications on weekdays from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. during the school year.
• Robust age assurance measures to more effectively verify the age of young users.
• Safer, age-appropriate content controls, including stronger safeguards against bullying, content promoting eating disorders, and content related to suicide and self-harm.
• Stronger, more user-friendly parental controls.
• Limits on social comparison features, including beauty filters and visible “like” counts, that have been linked to poor mental health outcomes in kids and teens.
• Both the implementation and efficacy of the features will be regularly assessed by an independent auditor and the settling states.

In a news release, Meta also called on TikTok and YouTube to join Facebook and Instagram and the state attorneys general in adopting this new standard to ensure that teens use social media in a healthy and responsible way.

“While this is an important step, the fact is that teens move fluidly between dozens of apps a day. All platforms should empower parents and support teens by putting the same measures in place, because we know that when teens are restricted on one app, they simply move to another,” Meta said in a statement. 

YouTube is owned by Google, Meta’s Silicon Valley rival and a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc. TikTok is owned globally by ByteDance, a Chinese technology company, while its U.S. operations are majority-owned by American investors through TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC.

According to Meta, the multi-state pact will also establish an independent social media research foundation. Meta will share consented user data with the foundation to advance independent research on teen well-being and to grow our collective understanding of how best to support teens online.

In addition, an independent auditor will test and report to the states on Meta’s compliance with the agreement, reviewing its terms annually for five years.