SUN: Maryland just won nearly $328M from Meta. Now what?

MARYLAND — The state of Maryland is set to receive up to $328 million over the next 10 years after settling a lawsuit with social media giant Meta, but the state has not said exactly how it plans to spend the money.

Legal documents say settlement funds will be disbursed to the Maryland Attorney General’s office to cover legal costs and finance state consumer protection enforcement efforts. But the Attorney General’s office did not respond to The Baltimore Sun’s requests for an itemized breakdown of how settlement money will be spent, including how much legal costs the office incurred from the lawsuit.

Maryland alleged that Meta knowingly designed Facebook and Instagram with addictive features that were detrimental to young people’s mental health. Under the settlement, Meta will also be required to add protections for children on its platforms. Maryland’s school systems, meanwhile, want compensation for resources they say they have spent dealing with social media addiction and other harms.

With up to $328 million coming to Maryland over the next decade, the question is what the state should do with the money — and whether it should be used to address the harms at the center of the lawsuit.

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