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Instagram’s CEO, Adam Mosseri, is scheduled to testify on Wednesday in a historic trial that could impact how social media platforms are held accountable for influencing children. The case involves Google, which owns YouTube, and Meta, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook, both facing allegations that their platforms were intentionally designed to be addictive to minors for profit.
Mosseri will be the first prominent Silicon Valley executive to sit before the court to defend against claims that Instagram acts as a dopamine “slot machine” targeting vulnerable youth. His testimony will precede the expected appearance of Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg on February 18 and YouTube CEO Neal Mohan slated for the following day.
The lawsuit centers on claims that Kaley GM, now 20, experienced significant mental health issues after developing a social media addiction starting from childhood. She began using YouTube at age six, joined Instagram at 11, and later spent years on Snapchat and TikTok.
During opening statements, legal representatives challenged the platforms’ claims, with YouTube attorney Luis Li asserting that the platform isn’t social media or addictive by nature. Li argued that YouTube simply offers free video content, similar to Netflix or traditional television, and shouldn’t be classified as social media addiction.
Prosecutors, including attorney Mark Lanier, argued that both Meta and Google engineer their apps to create addictive behaviors in young users to boost engagement and profits, building “traps” rather than harmless platforms.
In testimony, Stanford Medical School professor Anna Lembke described social media broadly as a form of drug, emphasizing the underdeveloped state of young people’s brains, which makes them prone to risky behavior. She characterized YouTube as a gateway drug that may facilitate harmful habits among children.
The trial, expected to last until March 20, is part of over a thousand lawsuits accusing social media firms of contributing to addiction, depression, eating disorders, psychiatric hospitalization, and suicides among teens. Kaley GM’s case serves as a potential precedent for future litigation across the country, with additional trials in Los Angeles scheduled before summer and a broader federal suit in Oakland.
Separately, a New Mexico lawsuit alleges Meta prioritized profit over safeguarding minors from sexual predators in a case that began this week.
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