- 1 week ago
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00:00Please just start with your general reaction to the settlement and what you think it indicates.
00:05Yeah, so I think the first thing that needs to be mentioned is that this is a bipartisan settlement.
00:09And we see so frequently in Washington how politics gets in the way of leaders taking bold actions to protect
00:17Americans and to do what is right for their constituents and the people.
00:21And so a huge thank you from the people of West Virginia.
00:24You know, we worked a lot on this case, but the A.G.s, the Republican A.G.s in
00:28Tennessee and Kentucky, along with the Democrat A.G.s in California and Colorado, really led the way on this.
00:34And so it really is kind of a remarkable little window into how bipartisan politics can work.
00:41And I think your intro in terms of how the settlement broke down is incredible.
00:45I mean, this is a 17 billion dollar global settlement that will be paid out over about 10 years, as
00:52you said.
00:52Yes. But I think most importantly, and, you know, West Virginia is going to utilize that the roughly hundred and
00:58fifteen million dollars share that we will receive from that to very, very good use to make sure that our
01:03children and parents have everything that they need.
01:05And what is a very trying time to be a parent? I am one.
01:08But the right. The injunctive relief is really what is so remarkable here.
01:12And what you're seeing is, is that these tech companies are recognizing that their products can and are dangerous to
01:19children and that they're they need to be doing more to be cognizant of that, to admit that and that
01:27they have the tools to make it better.
01:28And we're really, really excited about what the future looks like for children in this country who use social media
01:35platforms, which is basically all of them.
01:37And and what this lawsuit is going to do to make their lives a little bit easier.
01:41Attorney General McCuskey, if we can just continue with the financial settlement for a moment, there is a discrepancy.
01:48The court filing says you agreed to a near 17 billion dollar settlement.
01:51Meta is saying up to 18 billion. My understanding is that there may have been a separate or ad hoc
01:56settlement with another state, Texas.
01:59Could you shed any light on that?
02:02So I don't actually know much about the Texas settlement.
02:06The numbers there add up. You know, I know the AG in Texas very well.
02:10He's a really great guy and I'm sure that he did the best he could for the people in Texas.
02:15I'm sure their settlement is incredible.
02:17And if that if the numbers are 17.1 and 18.1, it would make enormous amounts of sense for
02:23for that billion dollars going to Texas to have been added to the number in the press release.
02:27Thank you. I appreciate that.
02:30Did you achieve what you wanted to through settling that you would otherwise have targeted through through the court system?
02:38Yes. And I think that you can't really separate those two things.
02:42So we did achieve this through the court system.
02:44And so what we achieved was occurred because we were able to put sufficient pressure on Meta during the trial
02:52process.
02:53Right. So it's important to remember that this happens sort of shortly after they presented their case.
02:57And so, you know, what what they understood was that they were in a really bad position if this case
03:02went to a jury.
03:03And so just because a judge didn't make this decision or a jury didn't make this decision doesn't mean it
03:09isn't a result of the incredible work of the staffs of those four attorneys general.
03:14And interestingly enough, all the staffs of all the signatory states. Right.
03:18So my team works every single day with the teams in California and Tennessee and Kentucky and California and, you
03:25know, Rhode Island and Louisiana, you name it.
03:28Right. So that our staffs are all very, very close and work together on a lot of these issues.
03:33So, you know, this is a result of the court process and would not have happened but for the fact
03:39that we were winning this lawsuit and Meta knew it.
03:42We're live on Bloomberg Television and on Bloomberg Radio.
03:45This is Bloomberg Tech speaking to West Virginia Attorney General J.B. McCuskey.
03:49A part of the $16.7 billion settlement, $5 billion approximately, is held back by Meta, contingent on TikTok and
04:00YouTube, adopting the same framework that they have agreed to.
04:05And we can get into the specifics of the framework.
04:07At this early stage, have you any indication of TikTok and YouTube's conditions and attitude towards following that framework?
04:18So I haven't had any direct conversations with either of those two companies.
04:22I would imagine there is a litany of litigation coming against them in the coming months and years to to
04:28to make sure that that part of this settlement is accomplished.
04:32Right. And I think it's really a novel approach.
04:35And to the folks that came up with this idea on how to to sort of link these two things,
04:41what's important about that is that kids use all three of these platforms.
04:44And we believe that the injunctive relief, the things that you talked about, the nighttime caps and the hourly breaks
04:51and the 15 minute break every hour.
04:54These are really important things.
04:56And so what we want to make sure is that these other groups, these smaller companies are implementing those same
05:02two things.
05:03So it actually gives us incentive to make sure that our children are being protected in the same ways on
05:08those platforms as they are on on Meta.
05:10And it gives Meta the incentive to make sure that their competitors are also following the same guidelines that we
05:16placed in their lap with this settlement.
05:19And so it really is sort of a masterclass in how to settle a lawsuit and how to make sure
05:25that both sides have skin in the game.
05:27My understanding is that TikTok is a case study faces, I think, around 15 different AG cases that are not
05:36consolidated.
05:37And YouTube and Snap, for what it's worth, I think face a smaller number than that.
05:43Even just yesterday, Snap was sued by the great attorney general in Pennsylvania, Dave Sunday.
05:48So, like I said before, I believe these cases are coming.
05:51So how does that fit in and how aggressive will this coalition of states be in saying, we've done this
05:58with Meta, we want you to follow suit in this framework that Meta has agreed to adopt?
06:04Yeah, I would say very aggressive.
06:06I think, you know, what we see here is the success that we've had in this Meta case is a
06:12blueprint for how to be successful with other similarly situated tech companies.
06:17Because the harm happening to children is the same and it's for the exact same reasons.
06:21And so it has always been our goal to make sure that every platform protects children in the same way
06:27that Meta is going to be protecting children based upon, you know, their their willingness to change their platform based
06:34on the pressure that we placed on them in this litigation.
06:37I want to go into some of the specifics here.
06:39So the mainstay of it are limits on the use of the two platforms, Instagram and Facebook, by 13 to
06:4717 year olds.
06:48And in one example, there is a two hour daily limit where a teen can't simply exceed that.
06:54It would require parental permission, essentially, for a teen of within that age bracket to use the platforms for more
07:01than two hours.
07:02How sort of contingent is the success of this initiative on the parents buying in to what Meta has agreed
07:09to do?
07:10Yeah, I think very contingent.
07:12And I think in this country, you know, one of the things that is paramount is that parents do and
07:18always will have the best interests of their children at heart and that the government should be doing everything in
07:24its power to give parents the tools to be able to raise their children in the way that they want.
07:29And what we see with social media platforms is that there is a divide between the understanding of them, between
07:35the children and their parents.
07:37I have an 11 year old daughter and a nine year old daughter, both of whom use Facebook, they use
07:42Roblox, they use YouTube.
07:45And to be fair, they know way more about how to use it and what they can do on it
07:49than I do.
07:50And so it is really incumbent in this way that the government sort of bridge that gap and ensure that
07:56parents who may not be able to understand or use the technology properly are protected.
08:01Their children are protected at the exact same time.
08:04And so, you know, what we see here is a way for parents to be able to do what it
08:09was that they wanted to do in the first place.
08:11And we're in many instances unable to.
08:15Attorney General, we have heard from Meta's chief legal counsel, legal officer this morning, CJ Mahoney.
08:20I just wanted to play a little bit of what was said.
08:22This framework will only work if all our peers join us.
08:27Because teens move fluidly across dozens of apps, we need an industry wide solution.
08:33We therefore call on our industry peers, TikTok and YouTube, to implement this new framework right away.
08:40I think we need to keep talking about this, this part of the story.
08:44You know, Meta is saying we want to see our peers participate in this and they will withhold some of
08:52the penalty they've agreed to pay until that's the case.
08:55Again, you know, please, Attorney General, sign the likelihood that you see in that happening.
09:02You know, I actually can't see the screen, but through my earpiece, that certainly sounded like an AI video.
09:07But I think it's very likely our office and my team of lawyers who worked on this case and I
09:16are very bullish about the other social media companies adopting this.
09:22Because here's the thing.
09:23All of these things cost money and kids always need money from their parents.
09:28And so they will, in my opinion, they will be a market aberration if they aren't providing these kind of
09:35protections to teens.
09:36And so I think in many respects, it is it is they should want to implement all of these safety
09:42precautions, not only because they're great for kids who are their customers,
09:45but because they aren't going to want to be seen as the social media platform that is the only social
09:51media platform left that is still harming teens in the way that this lawsuit outlined.
09:57Because the theories are.
10:00We're live on Bloomberg Television and on Bloomberg Radio speaking to West Virginia Attorney General JB.
10:06McCuskey, there is an independent auditor that will monitor compliance.
10:10Will that mechanism have teeth?
10:14Yes, that mechanism will have teeth because it will be in constant communication with the attorney generals who reached the
10:21settlement.
10:22And all of us are stalwart in the fact that these changes need to be implemented.
10:30And we are going to hold Meta's feet to the fire here because they've made some really incredible promises,
10:36some things that we think will make a difference in children and parents' lives all across this country.
10:40And if Meta is trying to circumvent what they're promised or trying to do things that that get around what
10:47the settlement says,
10:49we need to be to continue to be the protectors for our clients who are children and parents.
10:54So I feel very good about that part of this settlement.
10:57I think that Meta has really met us halfway here, pun intended, I guess.
11:02And, you know, their willingness to settle this case and their willingness to go as far as they have for
11:08these child protections,
11:08I think shows a willingness on their part to to do all of the things that they promised.
11:14So I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt.
11:15I'm going to assume that they're going to do every single thing that they said they're going to do.
11:18But these auditors will have the power and we will have the power to hold them accountable if they don't.
11:24Meta, you know, positions this framework as empowering the parents.
11:28And we've talked about, you know, how contingent the success of this initiative will be on the parents.
11:33But for those aged 13 to 17, you know, this is also a technology story about their access to a
11:39technology and their relationship with a technology.
11:42How do you see that changing your constituents that are within the age bracket 13 to 17?
11:48You know, it's interesting.
11:49You know, one of the corollaries that I draw frequently is that, you know, all of the people in my
11:55parents' generation watched their parents smoke cigarettes.
11:58And kids who watched their parents smoke were way less likely to smoke going forward.
12:04And I think frequently when 13-year-old kids see their mom and dad scrolling on their phone on the
12:09couch,
12:10they kind of see that in the same way that kids who watch their parents smoke.
12:13And I think there's going to be an inherent shift in the next generation of kids where, you know,
12:20they understand that the time suck that doom scrolling can create and the damage it causes to your relationship and
12:26to your friends.
12:27And I'm very hopeful that not just these safety precautions that we have put together here,
12:32but just the general shifts in society.
12:35We will have a generation of kids moving forward who hopefully want to get back outside,
12:41ride their bike, play baseball, hang out with their friends, play spotlight,
12:45do all the things that we did when we were kids.
12:48And we're really hopeful that that's going to happen.
12:51And I think in many respects, we're starting to see that now.
12:54Attorney General, this ends or closes the book on a specific piece of litigation.
12:59Just in the 60 seconds we have left, what happens next?
13:03How much does this continue at an industry-wide level?
13:07I think it continues at an industry-wide level until all of those in the industry make the same commitment
13:13that Meta did to the children and parents of this country.
13:16And I believe that the attorney generals who filed this case are all ready to go to make sure that
13:22that happens.
13:23And I'm very, very excited for the future for our kids.
13:26And I think this is a huge first step in holding all social media platforms accountable
13:31for how they have treated our kids and families as their customers.
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