Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg took the witness stand in Los Angeles on Wednesday to defend his company in a landmark social media addiction trial, telling the court “a meaningful number of people” lie about their age and that enforcing Instagram’s age limits can be “very difficult”.
Zuckerberg, who wore a dark suit and grey tie, was questioned by Mark Lanier, the lawyer for the plaintiff, a 20-year-old woman identified as K.G.M. She alleges that Meta built features into Instagram designed to keep young users hooked on the service.
The Californian has also sued YouTube, TikTok and Snap, accusing these companies of having engineered apps to promote compulsive use that contributed to her body dysmorphia, anxiety and depression. She has reached undisclosed settlements with Snap and TikTok.
YouTube said in its opening statement that it was not a social media company and that its features were not designed to be addictive.
Neal Mohan, YouTube’s chief executive, was scheduled to testify this week but the plaintiff’s lawyers removed him from the witness list.
Lanier pressed Zuckerberg on whether Meta had taken adequate measures around accounts belonging to children under 13, despite the rules prohibiting them from using the platform.
Zuckerberg said the company had introduced “proactive tools” to identify and remove such accounts but acknowledged the difficulty of the task.
“There are a set of people — potentially a meaningful number of people — who lie about their age,” he told the court.
He spent several hours on the stand in a trial expected to continue till the end of March.
A focal point of the day, according to Rolling Stone magazine, was an internal email Zuckerberg had sent in December 2015 outlining “What I hope we can accomplish in 2016”.
In it, he had expressed a desire to increase the “time spent” on company products by 12 per cent over three years.
Zuckerberg characterised the email as more of a brainstorming note than a mandate. “I’m not sure if these were official goals or anything,” he said.
He also sought to downplay the financial significance of teenage users.
“Most teens don’t have that much disposable income,” he said. “In terms of our business, I don’t think it’s a meaningful factor in the near term.”
Meta derives most of its revenue from advertising.
Under Meta policy, new users must provide theirdate of birth when creating an account. The company had previously argued that age verification should occur before an app is downloaded, placing the responsibility on Apple and Google, which operate the world’s dominant app stores, to implement age-gating measures.
At the close of his examination, Lanier displayed a poster around 20 feet long featuring images that K.G.M. had posted on Instagram from the age of nine onwards.
In a statement to the Los Angeles Times, a Meta spokesperson said: “The question for the jury in Los Angeles is whether Instagram was a substantial factor in the plaintiff’s mental health struggles. The evidence will show she faced many significant and difficult challenges well before she ever used social media.”
Outside the courthouse, nearly a dozen parents who say their children were harmed by social media gathered, awaiting Zuckerberg’s arrival.
Inside, the judge issued a warning to those wearing Meta’s AI glasses, sayingthey could face contempt of court if they failed to delete any recordings.