During a court appearance on Wednesday, Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta, disputed a lawyer’s claim that he provided misleading information to Congress regarding the design of the company’s social media platforms. This dispute occurred during a significant trial concerning youth social media addiction.
Zuckerberg faced questions about his previous statements to Congress in a 2024 hearing, where he asserted that the company did not instruct its teams to aim for maximizing user time spent on its applications. Mark Lanier, representing a woman who alleges that Meta negatively impacted her mental health during her childhood, presented emails from 2014 and 2015 in which Zuckerberg outlined objectives to increase app usage by double-digit percentages.
Zuckerberg clarified that although Meta once had objectives related to user time spent on the app, the company has since altered its approach. He firmly disagreed with the suggestion that his testimony was inaccurate.
This court appearance marked Zuckerberg’s first testimony in a legal setting concerning Instagram’s impact on the mental well-being of young users. While Zuckerberg had previously testified on this topic before Congress, the stakes are higher in the Los Angeles jury trial. Should Meta lose the case, it may be required to pay damages, potentially weakening Big Tech’s traditional legal defense against claims of user harm.
The lawsuit, along with similar ones, contributes to a global backlash against social media platforms concerning the mental health of children. Various countries, such as Australia and Spain, have implemented restrictions on social media access for users below a certain age, with the U.S. state of Florida also enforcing regulations. Industry groups are challenging these regulations in court.
The case centers around a California woman who began using Meta’s Instagram and Google’s YouTube as a child. She alleges that the companies prioritized profit by engaging children with their services despite being aware of potential mental health risks associated with social media. The woman claims that the apps exacerbated her depression and suicidal thoughts, seeking accountability from the companies.
Meta and Google have refuted the allegations, highlighting their efforts to enhance user safety through additional features. Meta often cites a National Academies of Sciences report stating that research does not definitively link social media usage to changes in children’s mental health.
This lawsuit serves as a pivotal case among a broader set of legal actions targeting Meta, Google, Snap, and TikTok. Numerous lawsuits from families, school districts, and states in the U.S. accuse these companies of contributing to a crisis in youth mental health.