In Ashlee Difuntorum’s latest Forbes article, titled “Meta’s $18 Billion Settlement Complicates Brand-Creator Deals On Social Media,” she unpacks Meta’s settlement to resolve claims that Instagram and Facebook were designed to addict children and illegally collect and misuse their data, and what creators and brands must consider following the ruling.
Teen accounts now face a two-hour daily cap across both apps, an overnight blackout, muted notifications during school hours and have an optional “non-algorithmic” feed with no personalization behind it, if desired.
“We don’t know whether any of these changes will actually reduce harm to children,” Ashlee writes. “The settlement doesn’t require Meta or the states to prove that they will.”
In contrast, there is no doubt that the creator economy will be profoundly impacted.
“The creator economy has operated for years on the assumption that Instagram’s teen audience is accessible, engaged and growing. That assumption is now in question.”
Influencer deals are often priced off follower counts, impressions and engagement. Typically, they are all measured under flat, structured fees, either on commission from tracked sales or conversions, Ashlee explains. The revised Meta policies for children and teens completely alters the conditions under which most creator deals were initially brokered.
The truth is that most creator contracts never anticipated this development, “The gap between what was negotiated and what the platforms now deliver is worth examining.”
Ashlee points out that “a teen who hits their daily limit before they reach a sponsored post never sees it. A teen on a non-personalized feed may never encounter a creator they would have discovered through the algorithm.”
Noting the migration risk, she writes, “Teens who hit Instagram’s two-hour daily limit may simply move to TikTok or YouTube.” Though Meta said their fulfillment of the settlement relies on TikTok and YouTube following the same playbook, they’ve already made the changes and TikTok and YouTube haven’t.
Ashlee defines the biggest issue at hand for creators and brands whose commercial relationships relied on Meta services, urging them to consider it before the disputes inevitably begin: “If a creator’s teen audience migrates off Instagram, does a platform-specific deal still deliver what was promised?”
