Former Mississippi AG proposes national settlement model for social-media firms
Mike Moore, who helped negotiate the 1998 tobacco settlement, is urging U.S. state attorneys general to craft a sweeping agreement with social-media companies that would include a public-education fund and stricter safeguards for minors.
Former Mississippi attorney general Mike Moore, a key architect of the 1998 $246 billion tobacco master settlement, is advising state attorneys general on a potential comprehensive settlement with major social-media platforms. Moore, now co-leader of the nonprofit Attention Initiative, says the $17 billion deal Meta recently reached with a coalition of state AGs could be a template for broader action, including a permanent national public-education fund to curb youth addiction to platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube.
"The settlement with the states is a great first step in helping protect our children from the dangers on social media," Moore said.
Meta’s agreement imposes daily usage limits, nighttime blocks for teen users, enhanced age-verification measures and new parental-control tools, with an independent auditor to monitor compliance for five years. California Attorney General Rob Bonta called the deal "a floor, not a ceiling," indicating further industry-wide settlements are expected.
Experts caution that the fast-evolving nature of digital technology may limit the applicability of the tobacco playbook. Carnegie Mellon professor Jonathan Caulkins noted that unlike cigarettes, social-media apps have both beneficial and harmful potentials, making a single settlement unlikely to address all health concerns.
The Attention Initiative, founded by 22-year-old Josh Jacobs and modeled after the Truth Initiative created after the tobacco settlement, aims to coordinate a national remediation effort rather than fragmented state-by-state actions, which Moore says would waste resources.
While Meta has not confirmed plans for additional settlements, its statement linked part of the payout to similar reforms by YouTube and TikTok. Google, TikTok and Snap have not commented on the proposal. Ongoing litigation includes a school-district case alleging addictive features and a pending Snap lawsuit in New Mexico over child-sexual-exploitation claims.