Meta turns the tables on TikTok and YouTube after teen safety settlement
After Historic Settlement, Meta Flips the Narrative and Turns Its Heavy Guns on YouTube and TikTok With a Hypocritical Demand: Strengthen Protections for Teens
Following its historic settlement, Meta is turning the narrative on its head and turning its heavy guns on YouTube and TikTok, hypocritically demanding that they strengthen protections for teenagers. Last week, Meta reached a settlement in a lawsuit brought against it by 29 U.S. states, which accused the company of violating the privacy of young users and incorporating addictive features into its platforms.
Meta is now using that provision to mount a spin campaign against its rivals and portray itself as a defender of teenagers. According to a Bloomberg report, over the weekend the company took out full-page ads in leading U.S. newspapers, calling on YouTube and TikTok to strengthen protections for teenagers.
“We want to make sure teens benefit from this new industry standard, but we can’t do it alone,” the ad said. “These protections will only be truly effective if we work with our peers — TikTok and YouTube — to implement the same measures. To make meaningful progress, we are urging our peers to join us.” Among other publications, Meta ran the appeal in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal and the New York Post.
Under the agreement, Meta will pay the states up to $18 billion over ten years and implement changes to Facebook and Instagram, including limiting minors’ use to two hours a day, a restricted night mode, stronger age-verification mechanisms and enhanced parental-control tools. In an unusual provision, the settlement makes the transfer of 30% of the damages conditional on YouTube and TikTok jointly paying the same amount - $5.3 billion - and implementing similar measures on their platforms.
In these advertisements, Meta is trying to portray itself as a pioneer in protecting teenagers and as a company acting out of genuine concern for their well-being. But this is little more than transparent spin. The settlement is a victory not for teenagers and users, but for Meta itself: The company is paying a relatively marginal sum compared with its revenues and implementing changes whose effectiveness is questionable, even if they are adopted by other platforms. A two-hour limit on each platform, for example, would still allow six hours of daily social media use. As a result, Meta is escaping a potentially damaging lawsuit and can now present itself as a company acting in the interests of teenagers, rather than as one of the central players responsible for the harm inflicted on them.
