The Puerto Rico Department of Justice has said only in general terms that at least half of the $124.7 million Meta must pay Puerto Rico, under a California court order in August, will go toward remedying harm to minors, and it has declined to say how the rest will be distributed, the Centro de Periodismo Investigativo (CPI) reported. On August 26, Meta agreed to pay more than $17 billion to 47 states and four territories that sued it, alleging that Instagram and Facebook are addictive to minors and that the company misled the public about the mental health harms of its platforms. Meta admitted no liability and settled to avoid a trial.
The payments, spread over a decade, will go into a trust account set up by the Government of Puerto Rico, and Puerto Rico’s first payment, $12,467,026.29, is expected in January 2027. Justice Secretary Lourdes Gómez Torres has pledged to work with the Department of Health, the Mental Health and Anti-Addiction Services Administration (ASSMCA) and the Department of Education to invest the money, but did not answer the CPI’s questions on how it will be divided among them.