Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram since 2018, testified on August 25 in a federal trial held in Oakland, California, addressing Instagram's child safety features and allegations that Meta designed its platforms to addict young users [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]. The lawsuit, brought by 29 US states, accuses Meta of creating Instagram and Facebook to hook youth, contributing to anxiety, depression, and suicide risks [1, 2, 3, 4]. The states seek civil penalties that could total nearly $200 billion [1, 3].
Mosseri acknowledged that before September 2024, only a low single-digit percentage of teens voluntarily used Instagram’s “Take a Break” safety feature, released in late 2021 to encourage users to limit screen time [1, 4]. An internal Instagram blog post from December 2021 revealed that just about 1.8% of teens activated "Take a Break," although over 90% of those who did kept it on [4]. Mosseri said, “Most teens didn’t want it. We decided to push forward with it anyway,” referencing the later decision to make the feature the default for all teen accounts starting September 2024 [1].
Meta is also accused of violating federal law by improperly collecting and using personal data of children under 13 [1, 3]. Mosseri denied suppressing or hiding child safety information from the public or lawmakers, stating, “I am not trying to encourage my team to hide anything” and calling reports that some statistics were removed from presentations to him "news to me" [1, 2, 3, 5]. He also disputed claims that the youth mental health research team was reduced in size, saying, “I disagree with that characterization. I don't think the team was smaller, it was just centralized” [3].
An internal Instagram presentation from 2023 showed teens viewed disproportionately high amounts of content related to suicide, self-injury, and eating disorders. Some statistics were reportedly removed from slides presented to Mosseri under company lawyer direction [5]. Mosseri testified he was unaware of employees limiting his exposure to some teen safety data [5].
The trial is led by four states: California, Colorado, Kentucky, and New Jersey. They accuse Meta of designing addictive platforms targeting youth and misleading consumers about safety [1, 2, 3]. Mosseri's testimony over two days through August 26 is central to the case [1, 2, 3, 4, 5].
