Meta settled for $23 billion because of these Features
Meta has agreed to pay up to $US18 billion ($23.6 billion AUD) and roll out a new set of child-safety features across Facebook and Instagram, settling a landmark case brought by nearly every US state over claims the platforms were deliberately designed to be addictive to teenagers.
The deal came together right before Mark Zuckerberg was due to take the stand in a California courtroom, and it’s one of the largest consumer protection settlements in US history.
This is bad news for Meta but can your business benefit by understanding what users want to see on social media?
If you run a business that uses social media for marketing (and let’s be honest, most of us do), this case is worth paying attention to, not just as news, but as a genuine look inside what makes these platforms so effective at holding attention, and where regulators think that crosses a line.
What the States Actually Claimed
The lawsuit, first launched by a coalition of attorneys-general in 2023, argued Meta had deliberately built features into Facebook and Instagram to hook young users, while publicly downplaying the harm. It also alleged Meta was collecting data on children under 13 without parental consent, a breach of federal privacy law.
A former Meta engineering director who testified during the trial described a company that consistently prioritised how often and how long people used the apps, even when that came at the expense of wellbeing.
The Specific Design Features Named in the Case
Based on the claims and the safety measures Meta has now agreed to roll out, these are the main features that were called into question:
- “Like” counts and social comparison features – the visible, constantly updating tally of likes and engagement that encourages repeat checking and social comparison, particularly among teenagers
- Push notifications, including during school hours – frequent prompts designed to pull users back into the app throughout the day
- No daily time limits or breaks – nothing built in to encourage users, especially minors, to step away from the app
- Weak age verification – making it easy for under-13s to access the platform in the first place
- Content recommendation algorithms – systems that could surface harmful material, including content related to bullying, eating disorders and self-harm, to vulnerable young users
- Limited, hard-to-find parental controls – making it difficult for parents to monitor or manage how their kids were using the apps
What’s Actually Changing
As part of the settlement, Meta has agreed to bring in:
- Hard caps on daily time limits and built-in pauses for children using Instagram and Facebook
- No push notifications during weekday school hours
- Stronger age verification (“age assurance”) measures
- Age-appropriate content controls aimed at reducing exposure to bullying, eating disorder and self-harm content
- More visible, easier-to-use parental controls
- Limits on social comparison features like visible “like” counts
Meta is now publicly pushing competitors like TikTok and YouTube to adopt the same framework, positioning the settlement as an industry-wide template rather than a one-off admission.
The Lesson for Marketers: Engagement and Trust Aren’t the Same Thing
There’s a real takeaway here for anyone running social media marketing for their own business. The features named in this case, endless notifications, visible social validation counters, algorithms tuned purely for time-on-app, were all originally built to maximise engagement. And they worked, that’s exactly why regulators got involved.
But engagement built on compulsion isn’t the same as engagement built on genuine value, and it’s not a model most small businesses should be trying to copy anyway.
Sustainable social media marketing looks a lot more like what we talked about in our recent piece on email nurture sequences, providing something genuinely useful, being consistent, and building trust over time, rather than exploiting attention for its own sake.
If you want to build a social media presence and advertising strategy the right way, ours Facebook Ads, Pages & Remarketing Training Courses teach you how to use these platforms effectively and ethically to reach real customers, build a genuine community, and stay front of mind, without needing to manipulate anyone’s attention to do it.
