The big SoMe trial on addiction, with internal documents and unpublished research being key factors did not go overly well for head of Meta, Mark Zuckerberg, with some of the present media like the BBC outright claiming that he "struggled in court" when defending against a huge number of internal documents showing that management have been doing very little to combat teen addiction of their platforms, and likewise have failed to implement functions to protect children from unwanted attention from adults.
While TikTok and Snapchat already settled, Instagram, and Facebook along with YouTube are still defending themselves against a wide range of accusations of being addictive for children by design, with the main plaintiff being a young woman only known as K.G.M that claims she used 16 hours a day on social media. A number of parents whom lost children to social media challenges and depression and suicide, allegedly caused by SoMe addiction, have also shown a keen interest in the trial.
Zuckerberg's main defence was based on misrepresentation of internal communication, despite it being presented without the quotation of it being questioned. His wording was "mischaracterising".
Mark Lanier, the main lawyer for K.G.M presented a wide range of internal communication within Meta top management, providing evidence that Meta has been aware of problems with teen usage of the platforms for years, and a executive level. Some of the evidence showed an awareness of age limitation mechanics being unenforced, with one email from the Head of Global affairs at the time, Nick Clegg, admitting that Meta could not claim that they were "doing all we can". This was later followed up by internal discussions from 2018 about positive results of retention of tweens, children aged 8-12, despite the minimum age for users being 13. Zuckerberg's response was an odd comment about them making up less than one percent of the revenue, and that the documents were taking out of context. A defence that will most likely not be seen as especially helpful.
An internal study showing deeply seeded problems with addiction and depression amongst the youngest users was also dismissed as "not conducted inside Meta", but when Meta's own lawyer asked Zuckerberg questions, it was all of a sudden proof of positive aspects of Instagram use - despite the study outright compared Instagram making teens feel bad, but yet continued to use it with "an addicts narrative bout their Instagram use".
Lanier also provided proof of only 1.1% of young users actively using features that limited daily use, most likely due to them needing to be manually turned on.
This testimony comes on top of Head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, stating in trial that 16 hours of daily Instagram usage does now "show an addiction".
The current trial is far from over, and more than one thousand more potentially on its way.