Los Angeles (TDI): Meta Platforms CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, took the witness stand on Wednesday in a US jury trial that can reshape legal accountability for major social media companies over alleged harm to young users.
It marks the first time the 20-year-old tech leader has been questioned in a courtroom on the issue of youth addiction tied to Meta’s Instagram platform.
The lawsuit at the heart of the trial was brought by a now-20-year-old California woman identified as KGM, who claims she began using Instagram and YouTube as a child and that the platforms’ design and algorithmic features fostered addictive patterns that contributed to depression and suicidal thoughts.
While TikTok and Snapchat reached confidential settlements with plaintiffs before trial, Meta and Google’s YouTube remain defendants.
Zuckerberg’s courtroom testimony was expected to delve deep into internal decisions about product design, business strategy and the company’s handling of research suggesting harm to teens.
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According to Bloomberg, lawyers for the plaintiff planned to question Zuckerberg about past internal memos in which he outlined goals to reverse declining teen engagement and increase time spent on Facebook and Instagram.
The trial, which began on February 9 and is scheduled to continue through March, is considered a bellwether for thousands of similar lawsuits filed across the United States by families, school districts and states.
Plaintiffs’ attorneys are arguing that social media platforms were engineered with addictive mechanisms, such as infinite scrolling, auto play and personalized recommendations, that exploit developing brains for profit.
If juries rule against the companies, it could expose Meta and others to billions of dollars in damages and weaken longstanding legal protections tech firms have relied on.
Meta, for its part, denies wrongdoing and says it has implemented safety features aimed at protecting younger users. The company points to tools like so-called “teen accounts” with default privacy settings and other guardrails, and insists its policies reflect serious efforts to balance user safety with product utility.
Jurors will continue hearing testimony from both sides in the coming weeks, with Zuckerberg’s testimony on the stand seen as potentially pivotal in shaping the outcome and its implications for big tech accountability.
