Meta Lobbies for Exemption From Child-Harm Penalties: Report

AP Photo/David Zalubowski

Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta is pressing California lawmakers to carve out an exemption from a bill that would sharply increase financial penalties for companies found liable in child-harm cases, according to a Friday report from POLITICO.

Citing two people familiar with the discussions, the outlet reported that Meta lobbyists have approached Democratic California Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Tom Umberg with proposed amendments to AB 2, legislation authored by Democratic Assemblymember Josh Lowenthal. The bill would allow fines of up to $1 million per child for social media platforms found responsible for harming minors through negligent product design. The measure is scheduled for a hearing before Umberg’s committee on Tuesday.

According to POLITICO, Meta’s proposed changes would create a legal safe harbor for social media companies that adopt a series of default child safety protections. Those safeguards would include disabling autoplay, limiting the sharing of geolocation data, muting overnight notifications, blocking direct messages from unknown adults, keeping minors’ profiles from public view, and preventing explicit content from being shown to children.

The proposal would also require companies seeking the exemption to provide parental controls allowing parents to limit screen time, hide their children’s profiles from public view, monitor who their children interact with online, and report misconduct.

If lawmakers adopt the amendments, the changes could reduce financial exposure in “hundreds” of ongoing lawsuits against Meta and other major platforms, including Google, TikTok, and Snap. Those companies have been accused by parents and young users of designing products that contributed to harms such as addiction, depression, and suicidality. POLITICO noted that a Los Angeles jury ordered Meta and Google to pay $6 million in damages earlier this year after finding them liable in one such case.

Neither Meta nor Umberg commented on the proposed amendments, according to the report.

The report comes amid broader efforts by Meta to strengthen its political relationships. As revealed in Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan’s upcoming book Regime Change, President Donald Trump reportedly boasted that Zuckerberg and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos had changed their posture toward him after his 2024 victory, telling Tesla CEO Elon Musk, “They hated me,” before adding, “And look at them now.”

“First-class groveling,” Musk replied, according to the book.

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