In a $100m Alabama settlement, TikTok adopts the teen curfew and time limits Meta accepted

Alabama's payout grows when other states follow it ^[4]. The Guardian reports that TikTok could pay up to $300m in total if 40 other attorneys general sign similar agreements within a specified timeframe ^[4]. CBS News quotes the attorney general's office giving the same $300m ceiling "if certain conditions are met", but puts the additional money at up to $183.8m ^[5]. Added to the $100m, that comes to $283.8m, about $16.2m below the stated ceiling ^[21]. Neither report explains the gap.

The curfew clause works the same way. The longer night-time block waits on rivals, so no single company carries the stricter hours alone ^[15]. Meta had called on TikTok and YouTube to adopt standards like its own, and TikTok had not publicly responded ^[16]. It has now agreed to them, days before a jury was due to hear the case ^[2].

A skeptic would say $100m from one state is small next to the $18bn Meta agreed in August to settle the states' suit against it ^[6]. On the money, the skeptic is right. TikTok used the settlement to avoid a trial ^[1]. Meta went to court and lost twice in March. A New Mexico jury ordered it to pay $375m, and a Los Angeles jury found Meta and YouTube negligent and awarded a 20-year-old woman $6m ^[7]. A trial in Alabama could have aired TikTok's documents and executive testimony in open court, the Guardian reported ^[17]. TikTok has settled cases headed for trial before, including a Los Angeles suit brought by a young woman and one from a Kentucky school district ^[8].

The claim that would have reached the jury was narrow ^[10]. Alabama sued in April 2025, alleging the app was engineered to hook young users "just like a sophisticated gambling machine" ^[9]. The state later cut the case down to its Deceptive Trade Practices Act, asking whether TikTok misrepresented how well "Restricted Mode" and "Kids Mode" worked ^[10]. TikTok argued that section 230 shields platforms from liability for user-generated content ^[11]. In my view the narrowing matters more to other product teams than the $100m does. The state's theory went after what TikTok said about its own safety tools, and section 230 covers what users post ^[10][11].

Katherine Robertson, chief counsel in the attorney general's office and the Republican nominee for attorney general, acknowledged the similarities with the Meta deal ^[20]. "We recognize that parents and youth are fighting a battle against a bunch of different platforms," she told the Associated Press ^[19]. Attorney general Steve Marshall called it "a great day for Alabama parents" ^[12]. A TikTok spokesperson said the deal "builds on our commitment and core objective to continually enhance our robust safety tools to protect teens" ^[14].

The settlement binds TikTok's product for teens in Alabama ^[13]. The next decision belongs to the more than a dozen states, California and New York among them, that still have suits against TikTok ^[18]. They now negotiate with a signed template in hand, and Alabama collects more if they sign one like it ^[4]. On this record the template covers two social platforms that faced state suits ^[1][6]. I would expect it to be the opening position in TikTok's remaining state cases.