Mark Zuckerberg appeared in front of a judge today to defend Meta against claims that the social networking site is dangerously designed to lure children onto its sites.
The CEO told the court that Meta has taken steps to reduce the spread of young users on Instagram, NBC reported, and has adjusted internal policies to increase user time on the site. Zuckerberg also accused the plaintiff’s attorney, Matthew Bergman of the Social Media Victims Law Center, of falsifying his earlier comments. The exchange came after Bergman asked Zuckerberg about Meta’s age verification policies, Zuckerberg’s media training, and his compensation as Meta’s CEO.
“If you do something that is not good for people, they will probably waste more time [on Instagram] for the short term, but if they’re not happy with it, they won’t use it in the long run,” Zuckerberg said. “I’m not trying to increase the amount of time people spend every month.”
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It’s the first time a tech leader has testified before a judge about the alleged dangers of social media, and it comes after Zuckerberg’s 2024 conference call.
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The lawsuit in Los Angeles, brought by a 20-year-old user against Meta, TikTok, Snapchat, and YouTube’s parent company Google, is the first in a consolidated group of lawsuits filed by more than 1,600 plaintiffs who say the companies intentionally designed harmful products. TikTok and Snapchat recently settled a lawsuit that is currently being tried in LA, but several other related lawsuits are moving forward.
The result of the study may have an impact on whether technology professionals and their leaders can be held responsible for harming the mental health of their users. Internet companies are largely protected in court over user content due to a provision in the 92-year-old telecommunications act.
Instagram CEO Adam Moseri released a high-profile testimony last week. Mosseri refuted claims that patterns of social media use among young people constitute “clinical addiction” – a topic of controversy among mental health professionals and technology leaders. Instead, Mosseri allowed patterns of “problematic use” among users and denied that Instagram is ignoring safety concerns in favor of profit. “It’s relative. Of course, for each person, there is such a thing as using Instagram more than you feel good about,” he said. “We make less money from young people than any other demographic on the platform.”
Tech watchers hope the case will spur congressional action, including amending the controversial Children’s Online Safety Act. “What we’re seeing in that court today is exactly what we’ve known for a long time to be true – Mark Zuckerberg built a machine that exploited children for profit, and he knew it,” said Sacha Haworth, executive director of The Tech Oversight Project. “Congress must act now to hold Big Tech accountable and stop executives like Zuckerberg from exploiting and harming young people.”
In a public statement released before the trial, company officials said: “The question for the judge in Los Angeles is whether Instagram has had a significant impact on the plaintiff’s mental health struggles. The evidence will show that he faced many significant, difficult challenges before he used social media.”
