ORLANDO, Fla. — Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier said Florida will proceed with litigation against Meta Platforms Inc. following it’s $18 billion settlement.
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The settlement was reached Wednesday to end the landmark trial over social media addiction in teens and settle claims filed by 48 states, as well as Washington D.C., with the exception of New Mexico and Florida.
The lawsuit accused Meta of contributing to the youth mental health crisis by intentionally designing addictive features to its platforms while concealing them from the public and violating federal laws by collecting data on children aged below 13 without parental consent.
Along with the settlement, Meta has also proposed a variety of child-safety features, including daily time limits, nighttime blocks, “robust” age assurance measures and more, according to the D.C. attorney general’s office.
READ: Meta reaches landmark $18 billion settlement with states in trial over teen social media addiction
In an interview with CNBC, Uthmeier called the settlement and proposed child-safety measures “not a good deal for the state.”
“We’re not going to settle, we’ll go to court,” Uthmeier said in the interview. “We like to fight for our kids in Florida, we’re not going to bend over and capitulate.”
Uthmeier said although anything that limits children’s access on the platforms is a good thing, he added the company’s child-safety regulations do not go far enough, criticizing its implementation of a five-year daily time limit for children on Facebook and Instagram.
I joined Brian Sullivan on CNBC to discuss why Florida didn't join the Meta settlement. pic.twitter.com/m1znHBglAC
— Attorney General James Uthmeier (@AGJamesUthmeier) August 26, 2026
“Child protection is not a temporary short term goal,” Uthmeier said. “They violated Florida law and our law is not temporary. It’s permanent and we would like to see something more solid as far as keeping kids off these applications in school.”
Florida passed a statewide bill in 2023 banning phone usage in elementary and middle schools, with restrictions for high schoolers on using devices during class time unless permitted.
New Mexico went to trial with its own case against Meta and won $567 million in early August in addition to the $375 million in civil penalties that jurors ordered against the tech giant in March.
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The latest $18 billion settlement will be paid out over a 10 year period, with California receiving the largest sum of at least $1.5 billion. Many other states will still collect hundreds of millions of dollars from the settlement.
Uthmeier criticized the deal, claiming that had Florida agreed to join the settlement, the state would have received less than New Mexico in its case.
“A few weeks of revenue, that’s not enough here when you’re talking about a company of this size,” Uthmeier said.
Meta’s 2025 revenue was $201 billion.
Uthmeier called the settlement “a win for Meta.”
“They need to do something that better compensates the states for the harms, and also sends a deterrent to other big tech companies,” he said.
Uthemier criticized California AG Rob Bonta for the settlement value, citing the $200 billion Master Settlement Agreement against major tobacco companies in 1998, comparing its value then and now.
“I don’t believe that’s fair to the kids that have been hurt, I don’t think it’s fair to the states,” he said. “So we’ll go to court and we’ll bring our case and we’ll let the people of Florida decide.”
This is a developing story.
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