TikTok and its parent company ByteDance have agreed to pay the state of Alabama at least $100 million and overhaul how teenagers use the app, settling a high-profile lawsuit just days before the case was scheduled to go to trial.
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall announced the agreement on Friday. The settlement ends a lawsuit the state filed last year accusing the short-video platform of designing features that hook young users and misleading the public about how safe the app really is. The money is due to the state within 45 days.
Had the deal fallen through, the trial would have opened on Monday in Montgomery state court, making Alabama the first state to bring its claims against TikTok before a jury. Instead, the agreement closes the case without any finding that TikTok did anything wrong. The company admits no liability under the settlement terms.
The price tag could grow. Alabama's attorney general's office says the total could reach $300 million if TikTok misses its deadlines for putting the promised changes in place. Separately, if enough other states reach qualifying settlements with the company within a set period, Alabama could receive an additional $183.8 million.
The product changes are sweeping for teen users in Alabama. TikTok will impose a two-hour daily usage limit, cut off access between midnight and 6 a.m., and prompt teens to take what the agreement calls a "productive pause" after 15 minutes of continuous use, with further reminders at the 60- and 90-minute marks. Push notifications will go quiet between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m. and during school hours.
Teen accounts will also be offered a non-personalized feed that drops TikTok's signature recommendation algorithm in favor of a chronological timeline. Cosmetic filters that alter facial features will be disabled for young users, though makeup, fantasy, and parody effects remain available. The company will also strengthen age verification, make teen accounts harder for adults to discover, and make parental controls easier to use.
Marshall called it "a great day for Alabama parents," saying the changes give families real control over what their children see and how long they stay on the app. TikTok, for its part, said the deal builds on the safety tools it has already rolled out for teenagers.
The agreement closely mirrors the deal Meta struck with U.S. states this summer over similar allegations about Instagram and Facebook, which included a two-hour daily limit, nighttime restrictions, and suspended notifications during school hours. Meta had publicly urged TikTok and YouTube to adopt similar standards; TikTok had not publicly responded before this settlement.
Alabama's lawsuit argued that TikTok's endless, algorithm-driven stream of videos makes it the most addictive social media platform and pushes young users toward increasingly intense content about violence and self-harm — claims the company has consistently denied. Alabama had argued the trend helped drive up emergency room visits for self-harm among young people in the state.
The settlement lands as a wave of litigation continues to roll across the country. At least 27 other states and Washington, D.C., have filed similar suits against TikTok, and several cases are still moving toward trial. Because this deal resolves Alabama's claims without a courtroom verdict, the sealed details of how TikTok's systems actually work — details that would likely have surfaced in testimony — will stay private for now.
Still, the Alabama agreement sets a new template. If other states accept similar terms, the $100 million floor could be the start of a much larger bill for TikTok — and a new set of rules for how the most-watched app in America treats its youngest users.