SAIPAN — The CNMI is among the states and territories signing on to a proposed consent judgment with Meta Platforms that would resolve the multistate social media adolescent addiction litigation, according to the fully executed settlement agreement filed August 26 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
Under the agreement’s payment schedule, the Commonwealth would receive guaranteed installment payments of $107,481.52 each, paid in ten installments, with additional contingency installments of $46,324.74 each available if conditions set out in the agreement are met. The agreement lists the CNMI’s maximum payment across all installments at $1,538,062.63. Nationwide, the maximum across all settling states is $16,680,647,753.21.
Separately, the CNMI is listed to receive $1,749,671.67 within 30 days of the settlement’s effective date as its share of a $459.3 million payment resolving claims connected to the Cambridge Analytica matter.
Attorney General Edward Manibusan signed for the Commonwealth on August 25, through Alison M. Nelson, Chief of the Civil Division at the Office of the Attorney General. The agreement notes that payment instructions for the Northern Mariana Islands will be provided to Meta as part of a separate consent judgment, and no settling state receives its first payment until its consent judgment is entered. The first guaranteed installment is due within 30 days of the effective date, with subsequent payments each January 15 beginning in 2027.
Beyond the money, the agreement requires default protections for teen users of Meta’s social media platforms. In its first phase, teen accounts would default to a night access mode blocking access from midnight to 6 a.m., push notifications disabled from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. and during school hours of 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday, and a daily use limit of two hours cumulatively across Meta’s platforms, excluding messaging and longform content. Teens could not loosen these defaults without approval from a supervising parent, and users whose age has not been verified within 14 days of account creation would be treated as teens regardless of stated age. A second phase tightens the night access window to 10 p.m. through 7 a.m.
The consent judgment is proposed and subject to approval by U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, who presides over the multidistrict litigation.
