AG unveils plan for how Mississippi will spend $189M Meta settlement

This article was originally published by Mississippi Today.

Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch has unveiled a plan for how Mississippi can spend $189 million of national Meta lawsuit funds, directing over $18 million a year to be split among three state agencies for the next decade. 

The plan arrived in a consent decree that lawyers for the state filed Monday in Hinds County Chancery Court. Fitch drafted the plan as Meta, the corporation that runs Facebook and Instagram, prepares to pay billions of dollars to states after attorneys general accused the company of endangering children across the country with their social media platforms. 

States argued the company turned its platforms into “addiction machines,” targeting children during vulnerable life stages. Despite the settlement, Meta and other technology giants have denied the allegations against them and that they have any liability to states. The California-based company is represented in Mississippi by the powerful and politically connected law firm Butler Snow. 

The settlement agreement allows the attorney general to set the parameters for spending the money. Legal experts, mental health advocates and state lawmakers told Mississippi Today that Fitch’s plan could impact the health of children in the state for years to come. Here is what’s in it: 

How the Money Will be Spent 

Mississippi will be able to spend its portion of the $17-billion national settlement over 10 years. The state's share currently stands at $189 million, but it could go up to $270 million if the other tech companies ensnared in litigation — Snap, TikTok and YouTube — also agree to settlements with states' attorneys general. 

The plan Fitch’s office filed directs $18.8 million in payments to be made per annual installment from Meta. That works out to just under $189 million over 10 years, which is the whole settlement. 

Starting in January 2027, Fitch set these parameters for the spending each year over the next decade: 

• $6.8 million to the Mississippi Department of Mental Health for “mental health programs targeting but not limited to youth 12 through 18 years of age, including through cooperative programs with Mississippi K-12 schools.” For the remainder of 2026, Fitch directed all payments to be made directly to this department for the same purpose.
• $6 million to the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks for “new playgrounds, parks, sporting courts or fields, or other outdoor recreation facilities, or improvements thereof, across the State of Mississippi, including through cooperative programs with Mississippi K-12 schools and local governments, targeting but not limited to youth 12 through 18 years of age.”
• $6 million to the Mississippi Department of Education for “afterschool and school break learning opportunities and programming across the State of Mississippi, in cooperation with the Mississippi Department of Human Services.”

Meta will pay Mississippi an additional $6.1 million from a connected settlement involving Cambridge Analytica, a now-defunct British political consulting firm that allegedly harvested the personal data of tens of millions of American Facebook users without their consent before the 2016 federal election. All the money from that part of the settlement agreement will go to the Mississippi Department of Mental Health for youth mental health programs, Fitch’s office told Mississippi Today. 

All of the money will be deposited into the Attorney General of Mississippi Contingent Fund, a special state fund that holds money the AG's office receives from legal judgments. 

How Much Control Will Lawmakers Have on the Spending?

Although the national settlement assigns spending decisions to attorneys general such as Fitch, the Mississippi Constitution gives the Legislature authority to spend most public money. Lawmakers have asserted that authority with both tobacco and opioid settlement funds. 

In her consent decree, Fitch decided which agencies will get the settlement money, how much money they’re getting and what sort of programs the agencies must use. But her office said the lawmakers have the authority to determine what specific programs will get funded. 

“The Legislature still directs how the money will be spent, and we will work with them on possible funding ideas in the upcoming session,” MaryAsa Lee, a spokesperson for Fitch, told Mississippi Today. “Ultimately, the Legislature decides how the funds will be appropriated.” 

Lawmakers could, for example, create new mental health programs targeting children between 12 and 18, or fund new playgrounds to be operated by the Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks, Fitch’s office added.  

Fitch’s plan also says the “parameters and structure” of the spending decisions made by lawmakers should be established “in consultation with the Governor of Mississippi and the Mississippi Attorney General.” 

Fitch’s office told Mississippi Today the consultation will involve meetings between lawmakers and the offices of the governor and attorney general about future legislation appropriating the settlement money. The legislation will ultimately not require any sort of specific written approval from either the governor or attorney general, they added.   

But the provision gives Fitch influence over the specific spending decision lawmakers could make in the future.  

Fitch, a Republican, is running for governor and has touted her efforts to protect children from large technology companies. 

In the upcoming legislative session beginning in January, there will be two initial payments the Legislature can spend, Fitch’s office said. 

State has a Youth Mental Health Crisis

Under the settlement, Meta also agreed to implement new safety standards on Facebook and Instagram. Those standards include setting daily time limits on platform use by children, restricting children’s access during school hours, requiring age verification and creating a range of content controls. Some experts have said the required platform changes are drawn from research findings, while others have questioned whether the changes will be effective.

Mississippi continues to face a youth mental health crisis. Roughly 31,000 children in the state between the ages of 12 and 17 have seriously considered suicide, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness in 2025. The alliance also found that Mississippi only has about one school psychologist for every 10,000 public school students.

The consent decree filed by Fitch’s office said Meta violated the Mississippi Consumer Protection Act by designing its social media platforms to “entice, engage, and ultimately ensnare youth and teens.” Meta “misled the public about the dangers of its platforms and ignored the damages these platforms have caused to the mental and physical well-being of Mississippi’s youth,” the lawsuit argued.