Mark Zuckerberg grilled on usage goals and underage users at California trial

Meta Platforms Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg faced a barrage of questions about his social-media company’s efforts to secure ever more of its users’ time and attention at a landmark trial in Los Angeles on Wednesday. In sworn testimony, Zuckerberg said Meta’s growth targets reflect an aim to give users something useful, not addict them, and that the company doesn’t seek to attract children as users. Zuckerberg, wearing a navy-blue suit and tie, took the witness stand during the second week of arguments in the trial over the alleged harms suffered by users of social-media services, including Meta’s Facebook and Instagram.

The questioning reflected criticisms that have long dogged the social-media giant, even as it has increasingly turned its attention to artificial intelligence and related technologies as its key drivers of growth. At one point during the morning, the judge told the courtroom that AI-equipped video-recording glasses and glasses with facial recognition technology were prohibited and that anyone who had taken such videos needed to delete them. Mark Lanier, a lawyer for the plaintiff, repeatedly asked Zuckerberg about internal company communications discussing targets for how much time users spend with Meta’s products.

Lanier showed an email from 2015 in which the CEO stated his goal for 2016 was to increase users’ time spent by 12%. “We used to give teams goals on time spent and we don’t do that anymore because I don’t think that’s the best way to do it,” Zuckerberg said on the witness stand in sworn testimony. Lanier also asked Zuckerberg about documents showing Meta employees were aware of children under 13 using Meta’s apps.

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Zuckerberg said the company’s policy was that children under 13 aren’t allowed on the platform and that they are removed when identified. Lanier showed an internal Meta email from 2015 that estimated four million children under 13 were using Instagram. He estimated that figure would represent approximately 30% of all kids aged 10 to 12 in the U.S.

“The better that Meta does, the more money I will be able to invest in science research,” he said. Meta and Google’s YouTube are facing the first of 3,000 lawsuits filed against them, alleging that the companies should be held liable for building algorithmic recommendations and product features such as the infinite scroll and autoplay that make it difficult for teens to log off. The first case is a personal-injury lawsuit filed by a woman who goes by the initials K.G.M.

in court documents. She alleges that social-media use as a child and teenager led her to struggle with body dysmorphia, suicidal thoughts, anxiety, addiction and depression. Her complaint says she started using social-media apps when she was 10 years old.

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