Minnesota could get at least $214 million under proposed Meta settlement, with $307 million maximum

Minnesota could receive at least $214.3 million—and as much as $306.7 million under the proposed state-settlement payment structure—if a federal judge approves an agreement requiring Meta to add new safety controls for teenagers on Facebook and Instagram.

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison announced the agreement on August 26, 2026. The proposed consent judgment was filed the same day in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, where the court must act before the agreement becomes effective.

What Minnesota would receive

The filed agreement lists 10 guaranteed installments of $21,434,104.09 for Minnesota. Together, those payments total $214,341,040.90.

Minnesota also could receive 10 contingent installments of $9,238,139.38 each. If the agreement’s contingency conditions are met, the state’s listed maximum for the state-settlement installments would be $306,722,434.66.

The contingent money depends on a trigger tied to whether other social-media companies adopt comparable terms. If Minnesota does not meet that trigger during the agreement term, the contingent installments would be permanently forfeited and retained by Meta.

The Minnesota attorney general’s office separately said Meta would pay Minnesota about $8.5 million over claims involving Facebook user data and Cambridge Analytica. The filed payment exhibit lists Minnesota’s Cambridge allocation as $8,487,946.41. That amount is separate from the $306.72 million maximum listed for the state-settlement installments.

When payments could begin

The agreement says the initial guaranteed payment would be due within 30 days after the settlement’s effective date. Later guaranteed payments are scheduled for January 15 in subsequent calendar years, beginning January 15, 2027.

Those dates do not mean money is automatically due from August 26, 2026. No settling state receives a guaranteed payment until its consent judgment has been entered. If Minnesota’s judgment has not been entered when the initial payment is due, the state’s first installment would be paid within 30 days after entry.

The money would go to the state rather than directly to Minnesota families. The proposed judgment says Minnesota may use the payments for any lawful purpose under Minnesota Statutes sections 8.31 and 8.37, at the attorney general’s discretion.

Proposed changes for teen users

If approved, Meta would have to make several protections the default for teen users ages 13 to 17 on Facebook and Instagram.

During the proposal’s initial five-year phase, Meta would impose a combined daily limit of two hours across its covered platforms. The filing says the limit would apply cumulatively across linked Meta accounts, but certain activity—including messaging, watching long-form content and accessing settings—would not count toward the limit. The filing separately limits how messaging and settings could be used to circumvent the restriction.

Teen users would receive a clear notice after any 15-minute session of continuous use. Meta would also provide productive pauses after 60 and 90 minutes of cumulative daily use. The agreement says those pauses and notices would be implemented by default within four months after the effective date.

The proposal includes a default nighttime block from midnight to 6 a.m. based on the device’s local time. It also would disable most push notifications during defined school hours—8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday from August 15 through June 15—subject to exceptions such as messaging, account security and platform-integrity notices.

Parents would have stronger controls over those settings. Teen users or parents could make limits more restrictive, but changing the defaults to less restrictive settings generally would require approval from a supervising parent.

Other proposed measures include stronger age assurance, feed options intended to reduce algorithmic doomscrolling, safeguards involving bullying, eating-disorder content, suicide and self-harm content, and limits on social-comparison features such as beauty filters and visible like counts.

Claims remain disputed

The settlement resolves allegations brought by Minnesota and other states that Meta designed addictive features, exposed young users to serious harms, misled the public about platform safety and collected data from children under 13.

Those are allegations in the states’ complaint and settlement filings. Meta disputed the claims and asserted that its actions were reasonable and lawful, according to the filed court record.

The Associated Press reported that Meta agreed to pay up to $18 billion and add child-safety measures as part of the multistate agreement. The joint motion asks the federal court to enter the proposed consent judgment, but the court had not entered it as of August 27, 2026.

For Minnesota families, the immediate effect is therefore limited: the proposed controls are not yet court-ordered, and the state has not yet received the settlement money. The next decisive step is whether the federal court approves and enters the proposed judgment.

Sources

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