Facebook is doling out a seemingly small sum to brush away its video troubles.
Facebook has reportedly reached a settlement in a lawsuit alleging it falsely inflated viewership metrics on its videos by up to 900 percent. Advertising firms on Monday started revealing the details of that settlement, which includes a $40 million payment that'll largely be distributed to advertisers who allegedly didn't get the video viewership they paid for, per The Hollywood Reporter.
The lawsuit started in October 2016 after Facebook admitted it inflated its viewership metrics on videos during an 18-month period from 2015-16. Advertisers who'd paid for a certain number of eyes on their video ads quickly sued, eventually forming one giant lawsuit. And even though Facebook admitted to wrongdoing, litigants also claim the company didn't properly account for its actions, Variety reports.
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As of Monday, Facebook seemed to be making amends. According to a briefing released Monday by those plaintiffs, Facebook has agreed to pay out a $40 million settlement. Most of it will go to the affected advertisers, but 30 percent of the settlement, or $12 million, will go to attorneys, per the Reporter. Still, Facebook is maintaining a lot of the suit came "without merit" — and hasn't acknowledged how it hurt the media business once news organizations got wind of how prioritized video content seemed to be.
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