Six days before a federal trial over online child safety, Meta's chief legal officer C.J. Mahoney traveled to Nashville on Aug. 6 to meet with lawyers for about a dozen states. Over bagels and coffee in an Art Deco office on Tennessee's Capitol grounds, Mr. Mahoney presented terms personally approved by Mark Zuckerberg: Meta would pay states up to $19 billion and make platform changes to improve teen safety, with some payment withheld unless all states joined and other social media companies also settled. The offer intrigued state attorneys general who had negotiated for months with little progress. On Tuesday, 47 states, the District of Columbia and several territories agreed to a settlement worth roughly $17 billion. Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti urged colleagues not to get greedy, citing a local saying: "Pigs get fat, and hogs get slaughtered."

The agreement is one of the largest between a company and states in litigation. For years, Meta — owner of Instagram and Facebook — relied on Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act and First Amendment protections. But global concerns mounted over social media's harm to children. Australia barred children under 16 from social media last year, and U.S. lawsuits flooded in since 2022, arguing platforms designed addictive products violating consumer protection laws.

At Meta, concern grew about these cases. In January, the company hired Mr. Mahoney, former Microsoft general counsel and lead negotiator of the 2020 U.S.-Canada-Mexico trade deal. He reports directly to Mr. Zuckerberg and took the role partly to negotiate a settlement. Days after starting, Mr. Mahoney called Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser and Mr. Skrmetti to begin talks.