Politics

The states' filings are sealed, but at a court hearing in June they said they were calculating the penalties by multiplying the number of violations by fine amounts set by state law. The number of violations is based on the estimated number of teens and young users affected by Meta's actions, the states said.

Twenty-nine states have sued Meta in ​federal court, most of them alleging the company violated the federal Children's Online Privacy Protection Act by collecting data from children without proper parental consent. ​The trial in August before U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers will address all claims brought under that law, plus the four states’ allegations that the company violated their ‌state laws ⁠protecting consumers by misleading them about the safety of their platforms.

Meta has denied the allegations, saying the attorneys general have no evidence it misled consumers about its platforms' alleged addictiveness because "social media addiction" is not an established psychiatric condition, and therefore statements that its platforms were not addictive could not be false.