Tennessee to receive $750M of $17B Facebook, Instagram settlement

Tennessee will receive over $750 million as part of a nationwide $17.1 billion settlement by Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram.

The company agreed to settle claims that it improperly collected data on minors and that its platforms are designed to addict children. In the settlement, Meta also agreed to impose daily time limits on children and prevent minors from using its platforms from midnight to 6 a.m., among several other provisions. 

“We took Meta to trial because Instagram was hurting kids and misleading parents,” said Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti in a news release. “Now we’re ending the trial with a settlement that imposes unprecedented protections for kids.”

The money will go into a special fund managed by state officials called the Children’s Digital Protection Fund. The money can be used to fund research and treatment for children’s mental health and law enforcement-related activity to protecting minors. 

The agreement comes as Meta’s trial with Tennessee in Nashville neared its end. Tennessee’s suit is part of a broader set of litigation by nearly every state, and this settlement also ends a separate federal trial against the company. 

Meta is one of the largest publicly traded companies in the United States. It generated over $200 billion in revenue in 2025 and reported a net income of $60 billion. 

C.J. Mahoney, Meta’s chief legal officer, said in a news release that the company was happy to reach an agreement with a bipartisan group of state attorneys general. 

“The framework we’ve negotiated will empower parents to easily manage how their children access our platforms,” Mahoney said. “Because teens move fluidly across dozens of apps, we need an industry-wide solution. We therefore call on our industry peers, TikTok and YouTube, to implement this new framework, right away.”