Instagram boss testifies in trial over allegations of harming the mental health of young people
Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram, appeared in a California federal court in one of the most significant trials Meta has faced regarding the impact of its platforms on children and teenagers. The case pits the parent company of Instagram and Facebook against attorneys general from 29 U.S. states, who accuse Meta of designing its platforms to encourage compulsive use and of failing to adequately protect minors.
The case focuses on Meta’s practices related to young users and whether the company was aware of the potential negative effects of its products while maintaining features designed to increase the time people spent online.
One of the central points of the questioning of Mosseri was the function “Take a Break“, created to encourage teenagers to leave Instagram after using the platform for an extended period.
Mosseri acknowledged that the tool had very low adoption among teenagers when it was introduced in 2021. According to her testimony, only about 1.8% of teenagers initially activated it. The company finally decided to make it a default feature for teen accounts in September 2024.
Prosecutors questioned why Meta took several years to make the tool enabled by default and whether the company was sufficiently transparent about the low levels of utilization.
Meta denies designing Instagram to be addictive
During his statement, Mosseri rejected the idea that Meta deliberately designed Instagram to create clinical addiction among young people. He also defended the measures the company has implemented to improve the safety and well-being of teenagers.
The executive has insisted on differentiating between clinical addiction and what he considers problematic social media use. Meta’s defense maintains that there is no scientific consensus to support the claim that these platforms cause clinical addiction in users.
Prosecutors, however, present a different view. The states argue that Meta was aware of the risks associated with its products and that some of its decisions prioritized user engagement and advertising revenue over the safety of minors.
The lawsuit filed by the states also accuses Meta of collecting information from users under the age of 13 without their consent and of publicly downplaying certain risks associated with its platforms. The states could seek fines of up to US$200 billion, in addition to changes in the way Facebook and Instagram operate.
The process, which is taking place in Oakland, could last for several weeks and become a precedent for how technology companies should design and operate their platforms when their main users are children and teenagers.
Written by: Karen Rodríguez A.