During a recent court hearing on Wednesday, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg refuted claims by a lawyer that he provided misleading information to Congress regarding the development of the company’s social media platforms amidst an important trial addressing youth social media addiction.
Zuckerberg faced inquiries about his previous statements to Congress during a 2024 hearing where he asserted that the company did not instruct its teams to prioritize increasing user engagement on its applications.
Representing a woman who alleges that Meta negatively impacted her mental health as a child, Mark Lanier presented emails from 2014 and 2015 in which Zuckerberg outlined objectives to boost user engagement on the app by significant margins. In response, Zuckerberg clarified that while there were past targets related to app usage duration, the company has since altered its strategy.
“I strongly disagree with any insinuation that my testimony was inaccurate,” Zuckerberg asserted during the hearing.
This court appearance marked the first time the billionaire Facebook founder testified in a legal setting concerning Instagram’s impact on the mental well-being of young individuals. The outcome of the trial in Los Angeles carries high stakes for Meta, potentially leading to financial penalties and challenging the tech industry’s traditional legal defenses against claims of user harm.
The lawsuit and similar cases are part of a broader global movement against social media platforms regarding the mental health of children. Various countries, including Australia and Spain, have taken steps to limit young users’ access to social media platforms, with ongoing legal battles challenging such restrictions.
In the case at hand, a Californian woman alleges that her mental health suffered due to her early use of Meta’s Instagram and Google’s YouTube, claiming that the companies prioritized profits over user well-being. Both Meta and Google have refuted these claims, highlighting their efforts to enhance user safety and citing research that does not definitively link social media use to negative mental health impacts among children.
This lawsuit serves as a pivotal test case amid a wave of legal actions against major tech companies like Meta, Google, Snap, and TikTok, with numerous plaintiffs accusing these platforms of exacerbating a youth mental health crisis.
In defense, Meta has been scrutinized for internal documents revealing awareness of potential harms associated with its platforms. Recent testimony from Instagram’s head, Adam Mosseri, revealed gaps in Meta’s understanding of the impact of parental supervision on teens’ social media habits. Additionally, Meta’s legal team argued that the woman’s health records point to preexisting issues stemming from her upbringing, suggesting that social media served as a positive outlet for her creativity.