Instagram head Adam Mosseri testified on Tuesday in a landmark federal trial in Oakland, California, defending the platform’s safety record while facing sharp questioning from state prosecutors regarding teen usage of a break-reminder tool.
Instagram Chief Defends Safety Record Amid State Lawsuit
The trial centers on allegations by four states that Meta deliberately engineered features to addict children to its platforms, contributing to a youth mental health crisis. Jason Slothouber, a senior prosecutor for the Colorado Attorney General’s Office, pressed Mosseri during Tuesday’s proceedings regarding the low adoption rate among teenagers for the “take a break” feature. That tool prompts users to step away after prolonged scrolling. Mosseri appeared frustrated by the narrow focus on a single safety mechanism, stating, according to the Associated Press, that “there are many features we launch over many aspects of safety and well-being” that the company continuously tries to improve.
The federal court proceedings in Oakland began last week and are expected to last approximately six weeks. The lawsuit involves four of the 29 states that originally sued the tech giant in 2023 over child safety and privacy concerns, with the remaining 25 states slated for separate trials.
Internal Documents and Employee Testimony
Earlier in the Oakland trial, jurors examined internal company documents and heard testimony from former Meta employees. Francesco Fogu, Instagram’s director of product design, faced contentious questioning from plaintiffs’ lawyers over internal chats. Sometimes we comply in the most minimal or literal way possible.” Fogu stated several times that he could not remember writing those words, prompting Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers to intervene and direct the courtroom forward.
Former Meta marketing analytics worker and data scientist George Volichenko also testified, telling the court that during his second stint on Instagram’s mental well-being team from 2022 to 2023, he was told the team’s primary purpose was to protect the company in upcoming lawsuits. Volichenko stated that his team argued the “take a break” feature should be turned on automatically for younger teens as an opt-out setting, rather than requiring manual activation. Leadership did not approve the change, with Volichenko noting that “the tradeoff to core metrics was not desirable,” referencing user engagement metrics. Volichenko subsequently left the company.
Prior Legal Battles and Recent Platform Changes
The current federal trial follows other legal challenges for Meta. Mosseri previously testified earlier this year in a Los Angeles state court trial involving a 20-year-old plaintiff identified as KGM, who alleged social media addiction during childhood. In that case, a jury found Meta and Google liable, awarding the plaintiff $6 million. Meta also faces a separate state court trial currently underway in Tennessee.
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