Zuckerberg requested about Meta’s focusing on of ‘teenagers’ and ‘tweens’ : NPR

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg arrives on the Los Angeles Superior Court docket forward of the social media trial tasked to find out whether or not social media giants intentionally designed their platforms to be addictive to youngsters on Feb. 18, 2026. Zuckerberg is scheduled to testify Wednesday.

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Frederic J. Brown/AFP by way of Getty Photos

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg was clearly getting testy.

“That is not what I am saying in any respect,” stated the tech billionaire. “I feel you are misunderstanding what I am saying,” Zuckerberg responded. “You are mischaracterizing what I am saying,” he shot again.

The chief was testifying on Wednesday earlier than a jury in Los Angeles in a marquee social media trial accusing Meta of intentionally designing options of Instagram to addict youngsters, and the authorized group for the household suing was intent on exhibiting that Zuckerberg’s fingerprints have been all around the firm’s massive selections.

Mark Lanier, a Texas trial lawyer and pastor with a folksy courtroom demeanor, directed Zuckerberg’s consideration to a 2020 inner Meta doc exhibiting that 11-year-olds have been 4 occasions as more likely to preserve coming again to Fb, in comparison with older customers. Instagram’s minimal age for signing up is 13.

“Individuals who be a part of Fb at 11 years previous? Lanier requested Zuckerberg. “I assumed y’all did not have any of these?”

Lanier then went over Meta inner paperwork from 2015 highlighting how an estimated 30% of 10- to 12-year-olds within the U.S. have been utilizing Instagram. The corporate had a aim to extend the time 10-year-olds spend on Instagram, one other doc confirmed.

“I do not bear in mind the context of this e mail from greater than ten years in the past,” Zuckerberg stated. “I feel the best way we should always construct issues is to construct helpful companies for individuals to attach with their household and buddies and be taught concerning the world.”

One 2018 inner Meta doc said “If we wanna win massive with teenagers, we should deliver them in as tweens,” Lanier identified, saying that undercut Meta’s personal insurance policies.

The authorized group representing the plaintiff, a 20-year-old California girl recognized in courtroom paperwork as “Kaley,” tried to exhibit that the top-down aim of Meta has at all times been to encourage customers to get on their platforms as younger as doable, and as soon as there, to determine methods to maintain them round. Usually options like “magnificence filters,” made the app extra alluring, Lanier argued.

When the corporate employed consultants who affirmed that such appearance-enhancing filters contributed to body-image points amongst younger ladies, Zuckerberg wouldn’t dispense with the filters instruments, calling eliminating them “paternalistic.”

Beneath questioning in courtroom, the billionaire Fb founder responded: “What we allowed was letting individuals use these filters in the event that they wished however deciding to not suggest them to individuals,” he stated. “In order that was the stability we got here to to let individuals categorical themselves the best way they need.”

Kaley, who’s additionally recognized as KGM in courtroom paperwork, typically used these filters, which her lawsuit says contributed to physique dysmorphia and different psychological well being points.

Had Zuckerberg checked out Kaley’s Instagram posts earlier than the trial, Lanier requested? His employees had proven him some, he responded.

Information are introduced contained in the Los Angeles Superior Court docket on Feb 18, 2026 as a part of a significant trial involving Meta and Google over whether or not their merchandise hurt younger individuals.

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Jill Connelly/Getty Photos

That is when Lanier, who is understood for orchestrating spectacles at trial, had 5 legal professionals unspool a roughly 20-foot collage of a whole lot of selfies that Kaley posted to Instagram.

Lanier implored Zuckerberg to dwell on the posts. Was her account ever seemed into for this a lot use as a baby? The Meta chief govt didn’t say, as Kaley herself peered on from the courtroom gallery.

When it was time for Meta’s lawyer, Paul Schmidt, to ask Zuckerberg questions, he lobbed them softer and extra gently. That, in flip, made Zuckerberg ease up a bit.

Zuckerberg stated there is a false impression that the extra consideration the corporate captures, and the extra time individuals spend on its apps, the higher it’s for Meta’s backside line, no matter harms they might encounter.

“But when individuals really feel like they don’t seem to be having a great expertise, why would they preserve utilizing the product?” Zuckerberg stated.

Preserving customers secure, particularly teen customers, has at all times been a precedence, Zuckerberg stated.

“Questions on well-being I take into account a part of this for certain,” he stated. “Should you construct a neighborhood and folks do not feel secure, that is not sustainable and ultimately individuals go and be a part of one other neighborhood.”

1,600 different plaintiffs

The looks of Zuckerberg, the star witness of the trial, got here within the second week of what is anticipated to be a six-week continuing. Different tech executives, social media specialists, habit consultants and others have additionally testified.

Kaley, the plaintiff, is predicted to ship probably the most emotional testimony later within the trial. Her lawsuit claims she started utilizing social media at age 6, together with YouTube, Instagram, TikTok and Snap. After changing into hooked on the platforms, she stated her physique picture points, despair and suicidal ideas worsened. The swimsuit factors to options like magnificence filters, infinite scroll and auto-play as being tantamount to a “digital on line casino.” Proof of the harms of those options have been hid from the general public, the lawsuit says.

Julianna Arnold, whose daughter died from fentanyl she purchased from somebody on Instagram, talks about watching Mark Zuckerberg testify exterior the Los Angeles Superior Court docket on Feb. 18, 2026.

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In response, Meta and Google, which owns YouTube, have stated the accusations over-simplify the complexity of adolescent psychological well being points. The businesses argue social media use doesn’t instantly trigger younger individuals to be mentally unwell, so that they shouldn’t be held legally chargeable for a consumer’s psychological well being struggles.

Kaley’s authorized group referred to as knowledgeable witnesses who described a number of research linking common social media use with worsening despair, anxiousness and physique picture points.

The jury will decide to what diploma social media platforms must be held legally culpable for plaintiff Kaley’s struggles. The trial is a bellwether case tied to 1,600 related fits filed by households and faculty districts. How the jury decides is predicted to affect settlement talks in all these pending instances.

Whereas debates about social media habit have raged for many years, it has taken till now for a significant trial on the difficulty to unfold largely because of a federal authorized defend that has protected Silicon Valley. A regulation referred to as Part 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act has allowed tech corporations to fend off lawsuits over what customers put up to their websites. Social media companies have additionally received authorized battles, together with a key Supreme Court docket case, which have discovered how corporations curate content material on platforms is a sort of protected free speech.

Regardless of these protections, the plaintiff’s legal professionals within the Los Angeles case discovered a approach to legally assault tech giants: by treating social media apps as unsafe merchandise, viewing Instagram, YouTube and different companies as faulty below product legal responsibility regulation. The argument is that tech corporations intentionally designed social media websites as dangerous and dismissed inner warnings that the companies could possibly be problematic for youngsters.

The jury will finally must assess Zuckerberg’s credibility, which was below assault on Wednesday.

Lanier, Kaley’s lawyer, introduced up an inner doc exhibiting how Meta communications staffers have pushed Zuckerberg to painting himself as extra “human” and “relatable,” and “empathetic, and fewer “faux,” and “company,” and “tacky.”

When questioned about his efficiency in varied different public settings, whether or not in courtrooms or earlier than Congress, Zuckerberg confirmed some humility.

He stated: “I feel I am really well-known to be very unhealthy at this,” which drew some laughter from the courtroom.