TikTok agreed to pay Alabama at least $100 million to settle claims that it designed its platform with addictive features, knowingly exposed young users to serious mental harms and intentionally misled the public about the safety of its platforms, Attorney General Steve Marshall’s office said Sept. 25.
Alabama sued TikTok and its parent company, ByteDance, in April 2025. The case against TikTok had been scheduled to go to trial Sept. 28. The settlement resolves Alabama’s claims against TikTok and requires the company to implement a series of safety measures for children using its platform.
Here are five things to know:
1. Alabama will receive a minimum of $100 million from TikTok, due to the state within 45 days. The state could receive up to $300 million if certain conditions are met.
2. TikTok must implement a two-hour daily time limit, with parental controls allowing parents to further restrict how much time their children spend on the platform. The company must also introduce “productive pauses” after 15 minutes of continuous use and again at 60 and 90 minutes.
3. The agreement restricts children’s access from midnight to 6 a.m., along with messaging and push notifications overnight and during school hours. TikTok must also implement stronger age assurance measures.
4. TikTok must strengthen content moderation, including limits on the discoverability of teen accounts by adults and parental notification of suspicious interactions between teen users and adults. The settlement also requires a default nonpersonalized feed for teen users, stronger parental controls and a prohibition on cosmetic filters for teen users.
5. The settlement comes amid other litigation involving social media companies. A Los Angeles jury ordered Meta and YouTube to pay $6 million in damages in March in a personal injury case, The New York Times reported Sept. 25. In August, a New Mexico judge added $567 million to a $375 million jury penalty against Meta, bringing its total to $942 million.
A TikTok USDS Joint Venture spokesperson said in a statement shared with Becker’s:
“TikTok’s priority has always been fostering a safe and positive space where people can be creative, discover what they love, and connect with their community. This builds on our commitment and core objective to continually enhance our robust safety tools to protect teens.”
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