One week after opening statements were delivered in a federal courtroom in Oakland, California, the trial was over. Meta — owner of Facebook and Instagram and valued at $1.36 trillion — agreed on Wednesday to pay up to $18 billion and to fundamentally redesign how its platforms work for young people, settling a lawsuit brought by California and 28 other US states. The speed of the capitulation signalled something significant: that the legal pressure had reached a threshold the company could no longer dismiss.

The states had accused Meta of deliberately engineering its products to be addictive to children and teenagers, driving a wave of anxiety, depression, and in some cases, suicide. Regulators also alleged that the company had routinely harvested data from children under 13 without parental consent, violating both federal and state law. Among the specific changes Meta has now agreed to implement are daily usage time limits, a block on notifications during school hours, a ban on access during overnight hours, and the removal of filters that promote unrealistic body image, including those simulating plastic surgery. Critically, this is the first time in the United States that Meta has been legally compelled to alter features that affect all everyday users — not just a subset.

California's attorney general, Rob Bonta, said the changes would be in place within months. Colorado's attorney general, Phil Weiser, argued that the settlement delivered more than any court ruling alone could have achieved. Meta, for its part, denied all wrongdoing and insisted that the reforms would only be effective if they were implemented consistently across the industry. That last caveat is perhaps the most telling detail of all.