Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is set to be questioned in a U.S. court trial on Wednesday about Instagram’s effect on the mental health of young users. While Zuckerberg had previously testified on the subject before the Congress, the stakes are higher at the jury trial in Los Angeles, California. Meta will have to pay for damages if it loses the case, which could erode Big Tech’s longstanding defense against accusations of user harm.
A large group of parents, teens and school districts had filed a lawsuit against tech companies including Meta, Snap, Google, and TikTok with allegations that they have intentionally designed their products to be addictive. The plaintiffs claim that these platforms harm children. According to them, when young people are hooked, they fall prey to depression, eating disorders, self-harm and other mental health issues.
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The plaintiffs are seeking financial damages and injunctive relief that would change the design of the platforms and establish industry-wide safety standards. If they win the case, there would likely be a significant change in how the platforms are designed. It could also create new avenues for lawsuits against these companies.
Meta and Google have denied the allegations, and pointed to their work to add features that keep users safe. Meta has often pointed to a National Academies of Sciences finding that research does not show social media changes kids’ mental health.
According to Reuters, investigative reporting over the years have revealed internal Meta documents showing the company was aware of potential harm. Meta researchers found that teens who report that Instagram regularly made them feel bad about their bodies saw significantly more “eating disorder adjacent content” than those who did not, Reuters reported in October.
A recent study by Meta showed that there was no link between parental supervision and teens’ attentiveness to their own social media use. Teens with difficult life circumstances more often said they used Instagram habitually or unintentionally, according to the document shown at trial.
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Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram, testified last week that he was unaware of the study.
This comes during a time of broader backlash against social media over children’s mental health. Several countries have come up with laws that attempt to address this issue. Australia has prohibited access to social media platforms for users under age 16, and other countries including Spain are considering similar restrictions. In the U.S., Florida has prohibited companies from allowing users under age 14. Tech industry trade groups are challenging the law in court.