In a crowded Los Angeles courtroom on Wednesday, a lawyer drew a picture of a frowning stick figure and projected it on a screen in front of Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s chief executive.
The figure represented a vulnerable child. The plaintiff’s lawyer asked Mr. Zuckerberg, 41, clad in a navy blue suit and gray tie, whether a reasonable company should help, ignore or prey on the child.
“I think a reasonable company should try to help a person that uses its services,” Mr. Zuckerberg said on the stand in California Superior Court of Los Angeles County.
Mr. Zuckerberg, who founded Facebook in his college dorm room in 2004, was testifying in a landmark tech addiction case against Meta and YouTube that is the first in a flood of lawsuits filed by minors, school districts and state attorneys general claiming that social media platforms, much like cigarettes or slot machines at casinos, are addictive and harmful. The tech companies have denied the claims.
Mr. Zuckerberg’s appearance in court — his first time testifying about child safety in front of a jury — was highly anticipated. Meta, which owns Instagram and Facebook and has more than 3.5 billion users, has come under fire as one of the biggest providers of platforms for teenagers. Parents, as well as tech policy and child safety groups have accused the company of hooking young people on its apps and causing mental health issues that have led to anxiety, depression, eating disorders and self-harm.
Those concerns have mounted globally. In 2024, the U.S. Surgeon General called for adding warning labels to social media explaining the platforms were associated with mental health harms for adolescents. In December, Australia barred children under 16 from using social media. Malaysia, Spain and Denmark are considering similar rules.
Mr. Zuckerberg has faced particular ire. He has been called before Congress for questioning about child safety on multiple occasions. In one 2024 hearing, he was forced to stand and apologize to parents who said social media contributed to their children’s deaths.
Dozens of U.S. state attorneys general have also sued Meta over allegations of child sexual exploitation and other issues. In New Mexico, a trial began this month over a case brought by the state’s attorney general, Raúl Torrez, accusing Meta of allowing predators to reach children and having chatbots that harmed young people.
In internal documents that surfaced in some of the lawsuits, Mr. Zuckerberg and other Meta leaders repeatedly played down their platforms’ risks to young people, while rejecting employee pleas to bolster youth guardrails and hire additional staff.
Some of those documents were on display during the opening statements of the bellwether case Mr. Zuckerberg testified at on Wednesday. A 20-year-old Californian, identified as K.G.M., sued YouTube, TikTok, Snap and Meta in 2023, accusing the companies of engineering their apps to create compulsive use. That led to her body dysmorphia, anxiety and depression, she said. K.G.M. settled with Snap and TikTok for undisclosed terms.
K.G.M.’s lawyer, Mark Lanier, said during his opening statement this month that Instagram and YouTube’s apps were built like “digital casinos” that profited off addictive behavior. He pointed to internal documents from Meta and Google, which owns YouTube, comparing their technology to gambling, tobacco and drug use. In a 2015 memo, Mr. Zuckerberg encouraged executives to prioritize increasing the time that teenagers spend on Meta’s apps.
Meta said in its opening statement that K.G.M.’s mental health issues were caused by familial abuse and turmoil. The company presented medical records to show that social media addiction was not a focus of her therapy sessions.
Adam Mosseri, Instagram’s chief executive, testified last week that the app was not “clinically addictive.” Still, he added, social media could cause harm if used too much.
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. It was unclear why.
On Wednesday, Mr. Lanier grilled Mr. Zuckerberg about the company’s history with child safety and his prior appearances in front of Congress.
Meta’s communications staff worked to curate Mr. Zuckerberg’s public image, making his social media posts seem more “human” than “robotic,” according to internal documents shown by Mr. Lanier. In 2017, one document showed that staff members advised Mr. Zuckerberg to demonstrate more empathy when speaking about child safety issues.
“I’m actually well known to be sort of bad at this,” Mr. Zuckerberg said of past testimonies and media appearances.
Another internal document showed that in 2015, roughly a third of all 10- to 12-year-olds in the United States, or four million children, used Instagram. Children under the age of 13 were not allowed to create accounts, Mr. Lanier said.
Instagram is not a harmful product, it is a valuable service, Mr. Zuckerberg said. As a result, “people will want to use it more,” he added.
Mr. Zuckerberg kept his answers short. At times he challenged Mr. Lanier, saying past statements were being taken out of context. Mr. Zuckerberg also questioned the relevancy of decade-old documents.
In response to questions about topics that included child safety, philanthropy, old emails and even comments he made in an interview on “The Joe Rogan Experience” podcast, Mr. Zuckerberg used the same answer more than a dozen times.
“You’re mischaracterizing this,” Mr. Zuckerberg repeated.
Midday, Judge Carolyn Kuhl ordered everyone in the courtroom to remove their smart glasses, fearing someone was recording the testimony with A.I. versions like those made by Meta. It was a matter of safety for the jury, she said.
At the end of Mr. Lanier’s questioning, he and six other people unrolled a 50-foot collage of selfies K.G.M. had posted on Instagram, many of them with beauty filters. He asked Mr. Zuckerberg if Meta ever investigated her account for unhealthy behavior. Mr. Zuckerberg didn’t answer that question.
Meta’s lawyers took over questioning after lunch, and Mr. Zuckerberg told the story of creating Facebook as a college student. The goal of the company, he said, is the same today: “helping people stay connected.”
The trial has attracted tech policy and child safety groups, as well as dozens of parents who said their children were harmed by social media. Many of them formed a crowd outside the courthouse when Mr. Zuckerberg arrived early Wednesday morning.
Joann Bogard’s 15-year-old son died in 2019 after he attempted a social media choking challenge. She arrived at 7 a.m. to secure a spot in the courtroom, which was designated through a lottery.
During the first break, she said Mr. Zuckerberg was dodging the questions and that the evidence presented against him was strong.
“It’s heavy in there,” she said. “There are a lot of emotions.”
Eli Tan covers the technology industry for The Times from San Francisco.
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