NEW IBERIA, La. — Meta has reached a settlement in a bellwether trial, agreeing to pay more than $17 billion in penalties and make changes to its products, including expanding its teen accounts feature.
Brandy and Toney Roberts, whose 14-year-old daughter Englyn died by suicide in 2020, have been advocating for stronger guardrails for teens on social media since her death. Asked how they feel about the settlement, they said it's complicated.
"When people ask how we feel, we're happy that the changes are being made, but why weren't they made six years ago when they knew that they were causing harm?" Brandy Roberts said. "We lost children because of it, and we don't see any of that money. We won't get Englyn back, so how does that make us really happy?"
Family says Meta didn't act voluntarily
The Roberts family supports the changes but does not believe Meta should get credit for making them.
"First, I want everyone to know that Meta didn't voluntarily make these changes. They were forced to, because they're in Oakland, California, they were in a court of law where more and more evidence came out from their own internal research, their emails, their internal documents showing that they knew what they were doing, and they did very little to help," Toney Roberts said.
Settlement amount described as small fraction of revenue
The settlement is worth more than $17 billion. Toney Roberts said that number is a drop in the bucket for a company like Meta. The tech giant is expected to bring in more than $230 billion this year, meaning it is losing out on about four weeks' worth of revenue over a 10-year span.
"You can give us all the money in the world. What about that hug from Englyn? What about every day when you don't hear 'dad, mom,' when you just can't get that I love you. You can't see her, touch her, feel her, watch her grow up, watch her go to college, watch her get married, watch her have children," Toney Roberts said. "No amount of money in the world can help ease that pain. There's just no way."
