Instagram chief Adam Mosseri will testify in a Los Angeles trial that could set a precedent on whether platforms are designed to addict children.
LOS ANGELES: Instagram chief Adam Mosseri will be called to testify on Wednesday in a landmark civil trial. Lawyers aim to prove social media giants deliberately design dangerously addictive products for young, vulnerable minds.
Meta, Instagram’s parent company, and YouTube are defendants in the blockbuster case. The outcome could set a legal precedent regarding whether platforms are engineered to hook children.
The trial centres on a 20-year-old woman identified as Kaley G.M. She alleges she suffered severe mental harm after becoming addicted to social media as a child.
Plaintiffs’ attorney Mark Lanier told the jury on Monday the companies engineer addiction for profit. “This case is about two of the richest corporations in history who have engineered addiction in children’s brains,” Lanier said.
He argued the platforms are not just apps but traps. “They don’t only build apps; they build traps,” he added.
YouTube’s lawyer, Luis Li, contested this characterisation in his opening remarks. He insisted YouTube is not social media and is not intentionally addictive.
“It’s not social media addiction when it’s not social media and it’s not addiction,” Li told the 12 jurors. He cited evidence that the plaintiff herself said she was not addicted to YouTube.
Li argued YouTube is a video service comparable to Netflix or traditional TV. He said users return for quality content, not addictive design.
Internal company emails show executives rejected chasing virality, Li claimed. He said they favoured educational and socially useful content instead.
The first witness for the plaintiffs, Stanford professor Anna Lembke, testified social media acts like a drug. She is the author of “Dopamine Nation”.
Lembke told jurors the brain’s braking system is not fully developed until age 25. “Which is why teenagers will often take risks that they shouldn’t and not appreciate future consequences,” she testified.
She described YouTube as a “gateway drug” for Kaley, who started using it at age six. The plaintiff joined Instagram at 11 before moving to Snapchat and TikTok.
The case is a bellwether for hundreds of similar lawsuits across the United States. Social media firms face accusations their platforms lead to depression, eating disorders and suicide among youth.
Plaintiff lawyers are using strategies from historic litigation against the tobacco industry. They argue companies knowingly sold a harmful product.
The Sun Malaysia
