MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg had to explain to a jury on Wednesday why Instagram targeted children under 13 for years.
LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Because that would violate the company's own policies. And a family suing Meta says it shows the company designed social media apps with the intention of hooking young people early.
MARTIN: NPR's Bobby Allyn was in the Los Angeles courtroom for Zuckerberg's testimony in the first-ever trial over social media addiction. Here's here to tell us more about it. Good morning, Bobby.
BOBBY ALLYN, BYLINE: Hey, Michel.
MARTIN: So what did Mark Zuckerberg say from the witness stand?
ALLYN: Well, he was on the defensive. A lawyer for the family suing Meta drew his attention to several internal documents obtained through discovery, and one of them showed how Meta knew about 30% of 10- to 12-year-olds in the U.S. were using Instagram. And a strategy document showed how, quote, "if we want to win big with teens, we must bring them in as tweens." Zuckerberg now said, you know, his words were being taken out of context and that some of these memos were being misrepresented. But he did admit, though, that many young people lie about their age to get on Instagram and that cracking down is just really hard.
MARTIN: Did you get a sense of how Zuckerberg's testimony was landing with the jury?
ALLYN: Yeah. They seemed engaged, but it's hard to say for sure if they found Zuckerberg convincing. Remember, their goal in this trial is to determine if Meta's Instagram and Google's YouTube substantially contributed to the mental health issues of the plaintiff. She is a 20-year-old California woman who says she got addicted to social media apps as a child as young as 6 years old. She says she developed depression and body image issues. She was also at the trial, sitting in the gallery.
There was a striking moment, Michel, when her lawyer asked Zuckerberg if he had reviewed any of her Instagram posts. He said his staff had shared some of them, yes. Then five lawyers unspooled this massive poster with a collage of hundreds of selfies she posted as a child. The lawyer then asked Zuckerberg if Meta ever investigated her account for unhealthy use, and he avoided the question.
MARTIN: Any other moments stand out to you from his testimony?
ALLYN: Yeah. At one point, the family's lawyer brought out an internal document about how Meta's staff has pushed Zuckerberg to be more empathic and relatable and more human in public appearances and, you know, not to be fake and corporate and cheesy - these are their words - you know, during events like court appearance. And Zuckerberg responded by, you know, showing some human vulnerability. He said, quote, "I think I'm actually well known to be very bad at this."
MARTIN: Oh. Well, so where does this trial go from here?
ALLYN: Yeah. There are four more weeks of witness testimony, then the jury begins deliberations. This case is tied to 1,600 other pending cases.
MARTIN: Sixteen hundred?
ALLYN: Yeah. It's a lot. They were filed by parents, by school districts, all of them saying that social media caused all these mental health issues. They've been consolidated into one case. And depending on how this verdict in Los Angeles comes down, you know, that could potentially shape outcomes in all these other cases, meaning there's billions of dollars in monetary damages on the line, and potentially major changes to the social media landscape.
MARTIN: That is NPR technology correspondent Bobby Allyn. Bobby, thank you.
ALLYN: Thanks, Michel.
MARTIN: And we should note - Google, which owns YouTube, is a financial supporter of NPR. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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